


Surprise Parenthood is Game Changing

by VWebb



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barely any Steve Rogers, Canon Divergence - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Not Canon Compliant, Parent Tony Stark, Team Tony Stark, The SHIELD data drop was stupid on ALL levels, Tony Stark Centric, but I'm pointing out how stupid some of his actions are, but Steve Rogers and Co.'s part is REALLY small, but that's still where I'm coming from, cloning, even though this is before Civil War, this isn't a Steve-bashing fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26668366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VWebb/pseuds/VWebb
Summary: Hydra was getting ready for their big reveal.  Unfortunately a few wires got crossed and a set of confusing orders were given to a very obedient Asset.  Tony Stark is about to discover two impossible children.  Hydra and SHIELD might never recover.
Relationships: past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark - Relationship
Comments: 151
Kudos: 409





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This work is unfinished. Updating might be slow when I get close to the end of what I already have written.

_“Goddamn that little Brat!”_

_“What’d he do now?”_

_“Little Brat made a goddamn Taser and got me with it! Jumped out of nowhere during training and got me! I had him down and was teaching him a damn lesson, when Reyes came in and made me let him go!” The Asset watched from where he was at rest next to the wall as one of the people in charge of the trainees took out a first aid kit and pulled up his black shirt._

_The other instructor laughed. “And think, he’s not even 6, yet.”_

_“Goddamn Reyes. I know Stark is the best possible asset, and the brat’s supposed to replace him, but it’s just not worth it. If he doesn’t want to discipline him properly we might as well get rid of him; give him to Stark, we can always take him back. God knows he’s just going to be trouble, him and the other one.”_

***

_The dark haired trainer turned to the asset, pulling the flash drive out of the computer in front of him just as it started smoking. Reaching out, the man picked up a beaded chain rapidly snapping the drive into place before holding it out. "Here, give this to asset 26. Make sure it goes with you, it's the only copy left for some of it. Take TS-026 and TS-S17 and head to the base in New York, they're being reassigned to their long-term training officer. We need them out of trouble for right now."_

_The Asset reached out and took the small necklace._

_"You should be able to find the base with no problem, it's very clearly marked. Just make sure no one sees you."_


	2. The Arrival

The Asset watched as the loading bay doors started to come down. This timing was going to be tricky. He wasn’t used to being so slowed down. Orders were to get rid of both trainees. He had already taken too much time just traveling here, but his orders had been to transfer both trainees and all their documentation to their new base. Unfortunately, his handler had been in a rush and had not remembered to detail the security protocols for the Stark base. If he hadn’t heard his handler complaining about Stark base he wouldn’t have even known where it was. As it was the Asset was going to have to rush to get back to where the handler was expecting him to take out a rival leader before Project Insight was launched. Handler was looking forward to Project Insight, as it would allow him to properly retire the Asset into storage.

As the bay doors reached their halfway point Asset finished zipping the smaller trainee into his vest where he was both protected and kept secured. The smaller trainee couldn’t be trusted to stay still or hold on to the Asset on his own, so keeping him secured was the best way the Asset had to transport him. The larger trainee was waiting quietly, although the Asset noticed several fidgeting movements that the trainers would have reprimanded him for. Pulling the larger trainee into his arms the Asset quickly secured one arm around him, while he used the other one to brace himself against the fire escape railing and jumping the 4 stories to the level he needed. Having already activated his jammer, the Asset took no time to look around before rolling under the descending door; making sure to keep both trainees tight against his chest.

Rolling up on his knees immediately so as not to damage the trainees, the Asset darted into the shadow between the shipping container that had just been delivered and the wall. Making sure to stay on the far side of the of the bay from the two security guards. The Asset had never been to Stark base before and didn’t know the layout. But a quick scan showed several possibilities. There were several doors leading out of the area with signs indicating they were stairs; all of them with obvious scanners and key card readers. As well as what looked like 3 separate elevator bays. The security was different than what the Asset was used to from his last base. But that wasn’t unusual, every time the Asset was taken out of storage, he had to learn new security protocols and systems.

Fortunately, there was an elevator bay close to him and out of the way of the people working to shift cargo. Strangely there was no visible security around any of the elevators. If the Asset had been asked he would have pointed out the obvious flaw, but for now it made the delivery of the trainees easier. Normally the Asset would never have trapped himself in an elevator during a mission. But the unguarded elevator near him would keep the Asset from being seen as instructed. The rest of the loading dock was well lit and orderly, with workers and security making their way through several deliveries.

He set the larger trainee down from where he had been doing his best to hold onto the Asset and pulled his zipper down to check on the smaller trainee still tucked into his vest. Crouched just behind the container at the point closest to the target elevator the Asset instructed the larger trainee on his objective. Watching closely as the larger trainee pushed the button for the elevator and then hid in the shadow of a nearby garbage can, the Asset swept smoothly through the opening doors with both trainees without being seen by anyone in the loading bay.

It was as the Asset took in the interior of the elevator that he realized the mistake he had made. No doubt when he returned to handler and reported on the delivery of the trainees to Asset Stark he would be sufficiently retrained. There was no control panel located in this elevator; it must be an elaborate trap. Spinning around for the doors, the Asset grabbed the back of the large trainee’s shirt and lifted him, but as he turned he saw the last few inches of the steel doors close silently.

The Asset shifted to put the larger trainee in one of the corners of the elevator and was about to lift out the smaller trainee to hand him over to the larger trainee for safe keeping as the Asset got ready for combat when, “Identify yourself and state your purpose.” Cocking his head, the Asset again took in the interior of the elevator he had erroneously trapped himself in. Sweeping his eyes back and forth across the walls the Asset spotted several spots that could possibly be surveillance devices.

“Identify yourself and state your purpose.” The same voice: male, mid-Atlantic, unidentifiable resonance indicating voice modulation, repeated.

“The Asset, code name: The Winter Soldier. Delivery of trainee TS-026 and TS-S17 to Asset Stark in preparation of commencement of Project Insight. Full records included.” The Asset lifted the smaller trainee out of his vest and passed him to the larger trainee to hold. “Delivery complete. Mission complete. Return to base.” With that the Asset turned to face the doors and waited; his mission was complete and the trainees were no longer of any concern.

Seven seconds later the doors again opened to the loading bay. The Asset darted behind the shipping container he had used as cover on the way in. Making his way rapidly towards the doors the Asset’s attention was caught by the nearly silent click of a lock releasing. An exterior door swung open and the Asset left, swiftly disappearing into the shadows between buildings. Less than 5 minutes had elapsed. 

***

“Sir, there has been an occurrence.” Combined with the ringing silence from the lack of music playing at near deafening levels, Tony Stark’s attention shifted from the code scrolling in front of him.

“Hm, what? J?” Tony looked up and around to see if someone was waiting outside his lab. “J?”

“There has been an incident in the loading bay, Sir.” A new screen flicked into view next to Tony showing an overhead view of the Tower’s small loading dock. Tony watched as a shadowy form snuck past all the human security towards one of the elevators. The view from the security camera switched to the inside of the elevator and Tony was surprised to watch JARVIS’ interactions with the man before he left. Leaving two small children, one of whom he wasn’t even sure was old enough to walk as he hadn’t seen it on the ground yet, behind.

“What the hell? JARVIS! Why did you let him leave! He needs to come back and get those kids!” By this time Tony was up and watching the screen in agitation. “For that matter, why did you let him in the elevator to begin with!”

While Tony was busy freaking out about 2 small children being left behind by what looked like some sort of long-haired commando the Iron Man assembly platform in the lab activated. “I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t know what else to do.” 

At this point a schematic of the long-haired commando popped up next to the security feed and Tony watched as more than a dozen areas were highlighted in red. “The number of weapons in the Asset, code named: The Winter Soldier’s possession made me hesitate to direct security towards him.” Several stills of the man in question as he crossed the loading bay, this time with highlighted lines of sight coming off the visible security showed that, if Tony checked, the security office would have had no record of the black clad man. At most, the commercially available security cameras installed in the bay might have captured a flick of an arm or a leg as the long-haired commando disappeared behind shipping containers. “The presence of the children and the implication that he was here to deliver them to you before leaving peacefully persuaded me to try to minimize the possibility of violence.”

“Yeah, JARVIS, but now we have two kids in one of my elevators!” Tony watched the live feed before turning to the frozen recording of this ‘Winter Soldier’ as he stepped back out of the elevator. Flicking his fingers, Tony watched the interaction between JARVIS and the hippy commando again before taking a deep breath. “Goddamn JARVIS. What am I supposed to do with them? Call Social Services?”

“May I suggest first donning an armor and retrieving them, Sir?”

“What?” Tony stared blankly at the security feed showing a young child and what he thought was an almost toddler sitting in the corner of one of his elevators. Quickly shaking his head, Tony snapped into motion and moved towards the Iron Man assembly rig. Stepping down from the platform encased in the mark LII (52) Tony made his way down the hallway from his lab. Fortunately, the elevator the children had been left in while not actually letting out right in front of his lab, did go as high as the lab levels and Tony could still access it from this floor. Also fortunately, this level housed only labs and JARVIS informed Tony that only 3 other people were present, all in the same lab, and easy to avoid by turning left instead of right.

Following the instruction given by JARVIS so as to avoid anyone seeing him walking around the building in the suit, Tony made his way to the 2 children who had been ‘delivered’ to him. Making his way towards the elevator Tony snapped, “give me everything you’ve got so far, JARVIS.”

“Yes Sir.” In the corner of the HUD a series of still pictures showed up, “approximately 105 cm tall, I estimate the older of the children to be between the ages of 4 and 6 with brown hair and eyes. The younger of the two children also seems to have brown hair and eyes. Height is undetermined but age is estimated as being between 1 and 3. No weapons have been identified.” At this point Tony had reached the elevator, although he had paused at that last sentence from JARVIS.

“Goddamn, fuck! What the hell would I do if a toddler pointed a gun at me! What kind of weapons were you expecting, JARVIS!”

“That is unknown, Sir. I would still suggest caution. There are those who would not hesitate in the sacrifice of two children as a means to get to you. Caution is advised for both your own safety and for theirs.”

“Yeah, I got’cha. Goddamn, JARVIS.” Tony took a deep breath before waving his hand to have JARVIS open the doors.

The doors swished open and Tony could finally see the small boy sitting in the corner and hugging the toddler on his lap. Tony still wasn’t seeing them with his own eyes, but no longer was the perspective that from the security cameras. Now, they were right in front of him.

As the doors opened Tony and JARVIS watched as the older of the two children jumped up to his feet and stood up straight. If he had been older, Tony would have said that the child was standing at attention. His heart sank as he watched the boy stare straight ahead, shaking. Tony went down on his knees in front of the two children and studied them silently for a moment. The younger of the two children got up on its feet by pulling on the older boy’s clothes to steady itself, and Tony could see the minute abortive gestures the boy was controlling towards the toddler every time it wobbled. Tony did not like what he was seeing at all.

Reaching out, Tony’s hands slowed as he saw the older boy flinch, until his gauntleted hand was hovering in front of them both, “my name is Tony. What’s yours?”

The boy just looked at him silently.

“Well, how about something else. Do you know where you are?”

The boy looked around the elevator with its door open behind Tony and then back at the red and gold armored man and shook his head.

“We’re in my tower right now. Well, really, we’re in an elevator in my tower.” Tony paused as the boy’s hands shook, but stayed straight and at his sides. His entire tiny body even more rigid and at attention. Muting his exterior speakers, “what the hell am I supposed to say, J?”

“Perhaps coaxing him out of the elevator would be a good first step, Sir.”

“Goddamn!” Tony activated his exterior speakers again, “…”. Silencing his speakers again, Tony thought for a moment. He didn’t have very much experience with children at all. Making a decision, Tony stood back up. Standing in front of the boy Tony extended his hand down and said, “come on, we don’t want to be in an elevator all day.”

The boy looked at the hand encased in red armor that had been offered to him in what Tony could only call confusions. Before Tony could ask for the boy’s hand, the boy frantically started feeling around his neck until he pulled out a beaded chain with a flash drive hanging from it. Pulling the chain over his head the boy, and wow Tony was getting tired of not having a name for him, piled the chain and flash drive in Tony’s automatically turned up palm.

“Thank you.” Tony looked down at the boy as the boy looked back at him expectantly. “Now how about you come with me.” And Tony held out his other hand to the little boy.

This time the boy just looked blankly back, so Tony, patience pretty much shot, bent down and picked up both the boy and the toddler at once into the crook of his arm and turned to walk back in the direction of his lab.

After freezing for a moment the boy spent the rest of the short walk back inspecting as much of the armor as he could see. The toddler, and Tony really wanted to know a name for that kid too, was fingering the cover to the arc reactor and trying to wiggle its little fingers into all the seams it could reach. Tony was thankful that at least one of the children didn’t seem to be terrified of him.

Stepping back into his lab Tony walked to the computer terminal that JARVIS had informed him he had separated from the network. “Blackout JARVIS, let keep this between you and me for now.” Both kids perked up and watched over his shoulder as the apparent glass walls frosted white.

Setting both children down on a hastily emptied table, Tony quickly inserted the flash drive that had been handed to him. Trusting JARVIS to start on the drive, Tony walked back to the armor assembly rig and allowed JARVIS to remove the armor.

JARVIS had wanted Tony to stay armored until tests could be conducted on the children’s biology. Siting the Extremis Virus from the attacks from the previous year as reasoning. But Tony hadn’t wanted to stay in the armor any longer. Neither child had said a word yet, and the older one was clearly frightened.

Both children watched in fascination, the older holding on to the younger to keep him from climbing off the table, as the numerous metal arms rose out of the floor and surrounded Tony. Each arm grasping an individual piece of the armor before disappearing back into the floor which closed up again only showing a round starburst pattern on the tiles. The assembly rig might not be necessary anymore, but it was still cool looking. And it made the storage of the suit easier as the pieces were taken to the vault to be reassembled. 

Tony clapped his hands and smiled as he bounced back towards the two children. “Well, let’s see what we have here.” Stepping up to the monitor and flopping dramatically into a chair, Tony grasped the screen and turned it so that only he could see it as he rolled next to the table with the two children. Watching over them at the same time he helped JARVIS decrypt the flash drive.

“Sooo, you didn’t tell me earlier. Do you have a name?” Tony took one hand off his keyboard and used it to poke a little at the toddler. “You look an awful lot like your friend here, is he your big brother?”

Tony poked again at the toddler causing him to squirm and giggle a little before going still and looking at Tony.

“Just what are you doing in my tower? Hmmm?” Tony again poked his fingers into the toddler’s side, this time making little tickling motions. The toddler, and Tony really needed to find out whether it was a boy or a girl, gave in and giggled some more.

The reactions from these children was really starting to worry Tony. The toddler was a little more open, but he still seemed very hesitant. While the older boy was just sitting there watching Tony. Tony could see the caution on the boy’s face as the boy took in Tony’s interactions with the toddler. He didn’t want to know just what the boy was watching for, but Tony knew he’d find out eventually. 

Keeping one eye on the two children on the table next to him Tony continued working with JARVIS on the flash drive. Obviously it was meant to interact with a different system, but the encryption didn’t seem to be too complicated. And it didn’t, so far, contain any viruses or malware of any sort. That was interesting. 

Setting the last algorithm to work, Tony turned his attention back to the kids. Hopefully whatever was on that flash drive would explain who they were and where they came from. He should find out soon. But in the meantime, he would have to figure out something to do with 2 children in his shop.

For now, Tony didn’t want to take them anywhere else. Everything he needed was either available here in the shop or could be delivered easily. That reminds him: “JARVIS, do you think they can eat pizza? Send out for a pizza.” Looking thoughtfully at the two children, “better make that 2 pizzas. Get the usual and a plain cheese.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony had continued his interactions with the toddler and finally coaxed him to crawl away from the older boy and towards Tony. Reaching out Tony picked the kid up and set him on his lap as he leaned back in his chair.

“You never answered me,” Tony looked seriously down into the toddlers face, “do you know _your_ name?” Peeking out of the corner of his eye as the boy on the table inched forward, Tony continued to talk to the toddler on his lap as he played with his fingers. “Do you know your friend’s name?”

Letting his voice come out in a dramatic whisper Tony continued to talk to the kid on his lap while paying attention to the boy on the table, “I don’t think your friend likes me. He won’t talk to me. And he still hasn’t told me his name.”

Leaning back again Tony looked thoughtfully between the two children. So far, from what he knew of children, the toddler on his lap seemed to be the most normal. But even then, Tony had thought most small children its age were much more demanding and active. And vocal; neither of the boys had made a sound.

Tony turned his attention briefly back to the computer monitor as it let out a small beep. Files and menus popped up and Tony snapped his chair back upright, causing both children to flinch. _‘Dammit.’_

“Is it clean, JARVIS?”

“It appears so, sir. But might I suggest a little caution.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tony stepped to the side, holding the toddler on his hip absent mindedly, and rummaged through the piles of electronics that had built up on his desk. Grabbing a cord Tony connected the tablet he had found to the stand-alone unit he had been working on. “Cut that one out of the network and download everything off the flash drive onto it.”

Turning his attention back to the kids Tony looked down at the toddler on his hip that was tracing the swirls and lines on the band shirt he was wearing. Stepping back to the table with the boy on it, Tony reached out expectantly and waited. Slowly the boy leaned forward and reached one hand out to take ahold of Tony’s.

“Well until our pizza gets here how about some fruit. I always have a little something in the refrigerator in here.”

Tony gently, but firmly pulled the boy to the edge of the table where he kept pulling until the boy finally jumped down to land next to him. Keeping ahold of his hand Tony led him around the fabrication units and behind a wall to show a small sitting area.

A beat-up old couch was facing away from a fairly complete, although small, kitchen. A bathroom was visible through an open door.

Tony was leading the boy towards the couch when he felt the slightest of tugs on his hand and looked down. The boy was looking up at him before turning his face to the bathroom door, then looking back up at him again.

“I have to go to the bathroom.” The whispered words caused Tony to smile, finally the kid said something.

“Yeah, sure, kid.” Tony let go of his hand waved it towards the door.

As the kid walked the dozen steps to the door before looking back at Tony and slipping inside, Tony continued to the couch and slumped down with the smaller kid still on his lap. “Well I guess that just leaves us, unless you…” Looking down at the kid in his lap Tony had a thought, “oh, shit! JARVIS!”

“Yes, Sir?”

“How old did you say this kid is?”

“Unknown, Sir. I estimate by its size and dexterity between the ages of 1 and 2.”

By this point Tony was sitting straight up staring at the kid in his lap who was looking right back at him. Feeling around the kid’s bottom and hoping that wasn’t exactly what he thought it was Tony slowly inserted a finger in the kid’s pants and pulled before looking down. “Shit, JARVIS! This kid’s still in diapers!”

“That is not unexpected, Sir. Most children are not potty-trained until well into their second year. Depending on the gender of the child it could take even longer as females develop earlier than males.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Exactly, Sir.”

“Can it, JARVIS. How the hell are we going to get diapers without anyone knowing about them!”

“Are we trying to keep them secret, Sir?”

“I don’t know. For now, I guess. At least until we know who they are and where they came from.”  
  
Steeling his nerves Tony stood the small body on his lap up and pulled on the kid’s pants again, this time being sure to be able to look down his diaper as well. “Well, this one is a boy too, at least.”

Slumping back against the couch Tony let the squirming body slide down from his lap. It had only been about 20 minutes since JARVIS had opened the elevator doors to what Tony was starting to think was his hell, and he was exhausted already. Of course, that might have had something to do with the almost 36 hours that he’d been up. At almost 40 years old, he was having more trouble staying up for days at a time. Although he would never tell Pepper or Rhodey that, they would just gloat and tell him to sleep more.

Tony rolled his head sideways from where he was slumped back on the couch as the bathroom door opened once more. The older of the two boys, and boy was he glad he could finally put a pronoun on the kid, came out wringing his hands in his shirt.

The anxiety on the kids face made Tony want to sit up straight, but keeping in mind how skittish he was Tony stayed where he was and tried to look harmless. 

He didn’t know if it was working or not, trying to look harmless, but the kid slowly moved closer. The anxiety on the boy’s face just got worse and Tony would swear that it looked like he was about to cry. “What’s wrong, kid?” Tony forced himself to continue in his relaxed sprawl, no matter how not-relaxed he felt.

“I can’t wash my hands.” The whisper was so soft Tony had to repeat what he’d heard silently to make sure he’d understood.

Tony just couldn’t help it anymore and sat up. Seeing the startled flinch and half-step backwards, Tony made sure to keep sitting so as not to loom over the kid. “Huh? Why not? Is something wrong, kid?”

The boy took a deep breath, and Tony could see him visibly bracing himself, before he looked directly at Tony, “I can’t reach the sink to wash my hands.”

“Oh.” Getting up Tony made sure that the younger boy was still climbing around the couch and not trying to get back into the lab proper. “That’s fine kid. JARVIS give the little one something to look at. We don’t want him wandering back into the lab where he could get hurt.”

Tony tried to ignore how the older boy braced himself as he reached his side and just walked past him and back into the bathroom.

Stopping in front of the sink Tony turned it on then bent down and wrapped his hands around the kid's rib cage under his arm pits and lifted him up. “Can you get them now?”

“Y-yes. Yes, sir,” the boy quickly reached for the water and the soap and proceeded to wash his hands.

Setting him back down on the ground, Tony automatically reached for the towel and passed that over too.

The boy looked up at Tony with an expression Tony couldn’t identify and a quiet, “thank you, sir.”

“It’s Tony.” Seeing the kid’s blank face Tony continued, “you don’t have to call me sir, kid. My name’s Tony. You can call me Tony.”

The boy hesitantly nodded as he set the towel up on the counter next to the sink.

Tony followed the boy as he turned and left the bathroom only to stop in the doorway and watch as the older boy made a beeline for the younger. Climbing up onto the couch, the older of the two hesitantly reached out a hand to the holographic shapes the younger was playing with, causing a blue circle to spin and come to a stop as a sphere.

“That’ll do. How’d you think of that JARVIS?”

“Reviews of many of the leading age appropriate games show they have the same elements present: bright primary colors, simple two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, cause and effect due to child interactions and clear verbal instructions. At the moment he is trying to match a specified shape from those presented.”

“Good job, J. Keep it up. The longer you can keep them occupied the better.”

“I shall certainly try, sir.”

Tony walked past the couch on the way back out into the main workshop to pick up the pad with the download of the flash drive on it. “When’s that pizza going to get here, J.”

“It should be here in 20 minutes, Sir. How would you like it delivered?”

“Get security to put it in the elevator and send it up. That’s not that unusual, I do that when I’m working on something and can’t be disturbed.”  
  


“Yes, Sir. There have been some very well-traveled pizzas in this building as you’ve been known to forget about them doing that.”

“You’re hilarious, JARVIS. This time I don’t think I’m going to be forgetting anything.”

Sitting down in one of his rolling chairs and positioning himself so that he can just see around the wall hiding his sitting area from the front of the lab, Tony flicked on the tablet in his hand and looked at the files listed. Many of them were alphanumeric abbreviations, and with no idea what he was looking for, the title names were useless. But there were two that caught his eye. Only half a dozen down from the top were two files TS-026 and TS-S17, that’s what the hippy commando had said.

Opening the first file Tony started to read. Going over the information Tony’s body broke out in a chill and a wave of goosebumps came over him. Skimming faster, Tony finished that first file as JARVIS informed him the pizza had been placed in the elevator and was on the way up.

Looking up almost in a daze Tony rested the hand holding the tablet on his leg as he took in the sight of the two children. They had finished with the shape manipulation and the oldest boy was sitting with the youngest in his lap and was tracing his finger through what looked like a twisting maze. The youngest watching intently as the oldest, designated TS-026 according to the file Tony had just read, finished the maze and was rewarded with sparkling fireworks. TS-026, he didn’t even have a name, he had a _designation_!

Tony automatically got up from where he had been sitting at JARVIS’ prompt that the pizza had arrived and went and retrieved the boxes. Walking back into his lab Tony took the pizza boxes into his kitchenette and put them on the counter. Absently acknowledging JARVIS’ suggestion to make sure everything was cut into small pieces. Still in a daze Tony got out three plates and looked through the refrigerator for 2 protein shakes and pulling a banana off the bunch on the counter. Tony looked down to realize that he had cut up a pizza slice and a banana for each child without realizing it and was in the process of pouring chocolate protein shake into two small tumblers.

Looking over his shoulder as he picked up both plates Tony realized that he had only lost a few moments to his daze. Carrying both plates over to the couch Tony handed them to each boy then left to get a box they could use as a table. Setting the box in front of the couch where the boys were sitting Tony deposited their shakes before stepping back.

TS-026 was watching Tony warily as he held his plate in his lap. TS-S17 was happily shoving slices of banana in his mouth with his hands. Giving a start, Tony realized that he hadn’t given either child a fork and went and got two of them, coming back and handing them over.

Taking another step back Tony walked back to his chair where he had left the tablet. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, Sir?”

“What am I going to do?”

“I assume you are going to eat pizza as you go through the files downloaded for you. Then after determining who the children are and where they belong you will see that they are taken care of.” When Tony just sat there staring at the tablet without turning it back on JARVIS continued, “is that not what you were talking about, Sir?”

“No.” Tony looked up again and studied the two little faces. He could see himself in there. They both had his eyes and while their hair was a light brown, so had his been when he was younger. Their skin tone was a lighter tan than his own, but that could just be a difference in age and exposure to the sun. Both boys showed intelligence, as far as Tony could tell. He didn’t have a lot of exposure to children, but both boys understood the activities JARVIS had designed for them quickly and without visible difficulty.

Watching the two little faces as they ate their pizza and banana. Watching as they discovered the flavor of the chocolate shakes. “We need a DNA test.”

“In comparison to whom, Sir?”

“… To me, JARVIS.” Was the soft reply.


	3. Telling James

***

The results of the DNA comparison were being compiled by the computer as Tony traveled upwards in the elevator. He had a 23-month old boy on his hip and a 5-year-and-3-month old boy standing next to him. The two boys had been in the tower for over 2 hours by now and it was approaching evening.

Tony, holding what he was fairly sure would prove to be his youngest son in his arm, couldn’t help reaching out, he hesitated, not knowing how to do this. But he _refused_ to be Howard and, forcing his hand to keep moving despite his hesitation, he brushed his fingers through the older boy’s hair. Remarkably, the boy didn’t flinch from him, he just looked up at Tony before turning to face the elevator door again. This was the first sign that Tony had had that _maybe_ his older boy hadn’t been horribly abused.

So far Tony had only been able to read the general files detailing the creation of both children. Flicking through the other files Tony had been able to determine that he had exhaustive medical, psychological and developmental reports on both children. As well as technical blueprints on what Tony was sure was cutting edge cloning and incubation technologies. It looked like everything even remotely connected, to the creation and lives so far, of the two children had been included on that flash drive. 

Considering just what was on the drive, Tony had come to the conclusion that the children had most likely been sent to him by a subversive element within whatever organization had created them. _Someone_ wanted Tony to have his children, but he _really_ doubted that it was the same person who had created them. Unless there was some overly elaborate plan going on here. And created they were, Tony knew without a shadow of a doubt that these kids were not created _naturally_. Tony had made sure of that years ago. And considering the age of his older boy, whoever had done this hadn’t been targeting Tony as Iron Man, they’d been targeting Tony Stark.

The elevator door soundlessly opened into Tony’s penthouse. When the kid next to him didn’t move, Tony gave him a gentle nudge to get him started. “Put the boxes on the counter, kid. I’ll put them away later.”

Tony nonchalantly walked out after the hesitant 5-year old as if nothing strange was going on. He had noticed that the calmer and more mater-of-fact he acted, the calmer the older boy was. If Tony acted like sitting down next to two children and playing a matching game on the holograms JARVIS projected was the most natural thing in the world, then both boys, and particularly the older one, went along with it. If Tony had to fake it until he makes it to make his kid stop flinching, then that is what he was going to do!

The older boy looked around in confusion before looking back at Tony. Tony nodded his head in the direction of the kitchen counter and the kid followed his directions to drop the boxes of pizzas on the bar top. 

Tony, who had slowed to a saunter, called out, “come on kid, in here,” as he headed towards the bedrooms. Passing the spare bedroom Tony normally kept for Rhodey. Dropping the duffle bag full of purloined baby supplies at the foot of his bed, Tony didn’t stop and made a beeline for the master bathroom.

In the Malibu mansion Tony would have had access to a bathtub. He hadn’t used one in years, but Pepper had enjoyed taking baths. Unfortunately, Tony and Pepper hadn’t worked out and when remodeling after the damage done during the New York Battle, Tony had converted the space allocated to the bathtub into a larger shower and more closet. The shower Tony had ended up with was large enough for a small sport team, and had enough shower heads that they would all be getting wet.

It was towards this shower that Tony walked. Setting down his burden on the fluffy bathmat, Tony kneeled down, “are you ready to take your shower?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Tony sat to take off his shoes and socks.

The older boy was standing just inside the door to the bathroom looking around as the younger answered again. He had been remarkable quiet for a child of Tony’s, only speaking up when he had to. Fortunately, the younger boy was less reserved, although he too kept his answers short and his physical responses contained.

“Don’t like cold.”

Tony looked back up at the toddler before carefully picking him up and setting him down on his bottom. “What do you mean, you don’t like cold?” Tony untied the boy’s tennis shoes and pulled his shoes and socks off.

As Tony reached out and started pulling the toddlers shirt over his head he was answered. “Don’t like cold water.”

Not letting his abruptly murderous thoughts show on his face Tony continued pulling the toddlers shirt off before throwing it in the pile of discarded socks next to the wall. Picking up the toddler again and setting him back on his feet, “well then I guess we won’t use cold water.”

“NO! Don’t like hot water!” Being in the middle of balancing the boy in his arms as he pulled off his pants, Tony froze. 

Forcing himself not to clench his hands on the delicate little body he was holding Tony took a deep breath. Pulling the toddlers pants off, throwing them in the growing pile, "are your showers always either cold or hot? Have you never had a fun bath?" Tony hated that he had to ask such a question of any child, let alone what was probably his son.

A little face scrunched up in thought as he looked over at his brother, "enty-ix is good at it."

“Well, then, how about we let your big brother choose the temperature? That way it won’t be too hot _or_ too cold. It will be just right.” Tony looked over to where the 5-year old was still hovering just inside the bathroom door. “You know your big brother will take care of you, right?”

Tony wasn’t comfortable putting that kind of pressure on a 5-year old. But, for now, he didn’t have much choice. He didn’t have any idea what he was doing and the kid did. From the way the older boy had directed the younger boy through their interactions with JARVIS’ games, and then later sorted through the baby supplies in the empty daycare, the kid was used to taking care of his brother. In a way Tony was glad there were two of them, hopefully having each other would make things better for both of them.

Making eye contact with his oldest son, seeing the barely there smile his comment had got, Tony made sure to grin back. 

Looking back at the toddler in his arms as he set him back on his feet Tony had to admit, at least to himself, to being baffled. What was he supposed to do now? The kid was naked except for his diaper. The other kid was in the process of pulling off his clothes and dropping them on the dirty clothes pile. But how exactly was Tony supposed to bathe him with the diaper in the way. I mean, he couldn’t take it off; there was a reason he was wearing it. But, fingering the material of the diaper, it probably shouldn’t get wet either.

Sitting back on his heels in confusion Tony took his own shirt off and threw it in the pile of laundry. Turning his head as he noticed that the older boy was gone, Tony watched as the duffle bag he’d dropped by the bed was dragged into the room.

“Lay down, 17”

Flinching at the reminder that neither of his children had _names_. Tony watched in silence as his oldest boy unstrapped his brother’s diaper, used the wipes to clean his brother up, and wrapped everything up before looking around for a trash can.

Pulling the trashcan out from beside the toilet Tony held it out for the dirty diaper. Okay, now he felt like a useless moron. He couldn’t even figure out how to change a toddler’s diaper. A 5-year old had to do it for him.

Getting up Tony opened the glass door to the shower and stepped inside still wearing his jeans. Both of the boys hesitantly stepped in after him. Taking the shower wand off its hook and holding it out in front of the boys, Tony turned on only that shower head. Normally Jarvis would turn on the whole shower to Tony’s preferred temperature, but considering the complaints from Pepper, Tony assumed that that would be _much_ too hot for children.

Showering with two small children was an experience that Tony had never expected to have, but it hadn’t turned out so bad. He had concluded that in the future he should keep control of the shower head himself, as neither boy had been able to keep from wildly spraying everything around them. Including their own faces, which is what convinced Tony that they weren’t doing it deliberately. Fortunately, everyone involved had found the experience more fun than anything else, and Tony had heard the full-throated laughter of both children for the first time.

Stepping out of the shower Tony pulled two new towels out of the closet while scrubbing the one from the wall through his hair before wrapping it around his shoulders. The wet jeans he was wearing were uncomfortable, but that could wait. Flicking open the first towel Tony draped it over his older boy’s head until he almost disappeared from view with nothing but his eyes visible as Tony gave him a big hug before letting go. Flicking open the other towel Tony wrapped the one-year old up before lifting the boy off his feet as Tony cradled the giggling form. 

Trailed by a walking pile of scarlet terrycloth Tony left the bathroom. Walking to the end of the bed he leaned down and dropped his giggling bundle the last couple of inches to bounce on the bed. Positioning the boy away from the edge Tony pulled a corner of the towel up. “Now you stay there and don’t fall off the bed, I’ll be right back.”

The next few minutes were another experience Tony had never expected to have. Despite initially putting the diaper on backwards, Tony eventually had one diapered, but otherwise naked toddler. Telling the boys to stay there Tony walked into his closet. Changing quickly into a pair of pajama bottoms out of his wet jeans. Tony pulled two t-shirts out of his drawers.

“Now, until we can get some more clothing for you two, we’ll have to make do. So, for tonight, you can sleep in these. We’ll figure everything else out in the morning.” By this time, it was almost 8 o’clock and JARVIS’ research had said that was actually a little late for a bedtime, so Tony was hoping both children went to sleep easily.

“Where are we going to sleep?”

Tony looked over at the older boy as the younger flopped over onto the bed and yawned. “You guys are going to sleep with me in here.”

The boy looked around, “okay.”

Helping tug the cover out from under two surprisingly heavy bodies, Tony watched both boys settle down. The duvet was pulled up and the boys curled together. Walking to the door Tony left as JARVIS dimmed the lights to their lowest setting.

***

Tony flopped down on the couch in front of the fireplace dropping his tablet on the cushion next to him. Staring up at the ceiling for a moment he took a deep breath, “give it to me, J.”

“DNA analysis of both boys in comparison to yourself, show more than paternal relationship, Sir. The older boy, TS-026 has a 98.5% DNA match to yourself, indicating minimal interference in the cloning process. Presumably the variance was caused by the cloning process itself, although further investigation into the cloning process and the corresponding technology is advised. TS-S17 is an 82.9% match to yourself, with some of the divergence showing in the same gene pairs as Ms. Potts, Sir. Although the genetic manipulation is not an exact match for the Extremis Virus, I can only speculate that physical enhancements was the goal in this case as well.”

As JARVIS continued his report Tony slid sideways on the couch until he was laying on his back with his hands covering his face. JARVIS fell silent and one of Tony’s arms flopped down to brush the floor while the other migrated to gripping a handful of his own hair.

As silence spread through the room Tony continued to stare at the ceiling. His brain was running in fits and starts as he thought of everything he needed to do. But first, “J, call Rhodes.”

JARVIS didn’t answer but moments later the sound of ringing filled the air. 

“Hey, Tones. What’s up?”

“James.”

Tony heard a clatter, “Tony. What’s wrong.”

“James, can you come to the city?”

“Why? Tony, what’s wrong?”

“Just, James… I need…” Tony took a breath and forcibly relaxed his shoulders, “James. Rhodey… Just, I just… I need to talk to you; can you get a least a few days and come to the city?”

“Yeah, sure, Tony. I can be there in 3-4 hours.”

“Thanks, Rhodey.”

“No problem, Tones. Whatever it is we’ll fix it; I’ll be there in a couple hours.”

“Thanks.” Tony speared his hand through his hair again, waving his other hand in the cut off motion for JARVIS.

“Okay, okay. Rhodey’s coming.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Okay, I can do this.” Tony sat up, “we can do this, J.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Okay.” Tony got up and started to pace, “okay, next. What’s the time in Seoul, J?”

“9:27 am. And may I say it is nice to see you paying attention to the niceties, Sir.”

“Funny, J.” Tony’s response was given absently, “call Helen.” 

By this time Tony’s pacing had taken him away from the sitting area and towards the panoramic windows. Not paying any attention to the view outside, Tony used the interface embedded in the glass to start pulling up parenting sites. Specifically, the ones with supplies lists and the broad expectations of development. He would go more in depth later, but for right now his boys needed more than just a single change of dirty cloths and a dozen diapers.

Flicking through three supplies list Tony started pulling out things he thought he might need. Speed reading his way through several articles Tony closed more windows and opened several parenting blogs just as Helen’s voice came on the line.

“Yes, Tony?”

“Hey, Helen. Are you busy with anything right now?”

“No. I’m just going through the latest results and correlating everything together. Helping you with Pepper has given me several ideas.”

“Good. I need you on a plane. I’ve run into a little problem that is definitely more in your sphere than mine.”

“Is it Pepper? I didn’t think we missed anything, but there are always variables. I can…”

“No.” Tony interrupted. “It’s not Pepper, she’s fine. She’s in Japan right now negotiating with their nuclear board. It’s something else. I’d rather not say until you get here.”

“Very well. I assume it’s urgent?”

“Well, no one is dying. But don’t take too long.”

“I’ll call you when I know when I’m getting in.”

“I’d send my plane for you, but you’ll get here faster if I don’t. Contact Jarvis with your flight information, he’ll send a car.” During the conversation Tony had been making several lists. Lists of modifications that would need to be made to the penthouse as currently there were only two bedrooms. Lists of clothing and supplies, furniture and toys, that would be needed for both boys. Lists with half formed ideas of people he might need to talk to.

Leaving his work behind him as the connection to South Korea closed Tony walked back towards his bedroom. Pausing in the doorway, he could just barely make out the sound of breathing from the bed. Bypassing the bed for a moment, Tony made his way into the bathroom and shut the door. It would astonish a lot of people if they found out that Tony didn’t have any cleaning staff taking care of his space. Years before Afghanistan Tony had been taking care of himself, and after being betrayed and becoming Iron Man he had had even less of a desire for people to be in and out of his space all the time. Gathering the dirty clothes on the floor Tony pulled open the closet door, dumped everything in the washing machine there, and started it. All of Tony’s suits were dry-cleaned on one of the lower levels, but most everything else, Tony took care of himself. “JARVIS remind me to put everything in the dryer later, please.”

“Of course, Sir. This does give a little more leeway for everything to get here.”

“Yep. And we’re gonna need it. Order everything on the lists and anything else you think we might need. Make sure you use one of the secondary identities and only order from the big sites. No specialty stores, J, not yet; Amazon, Macy’s, things like that.”

“Are you sure, Sir. The fastest items will arrive, without special ordering and using your name, is Monday afternoon.”

“I’m sure, J. I don’t want anyone connecting baby supplies and kids clothing to me. I’ll send Rhodey out with a list tomorrow, but I’m going to have to think about who else I’m going to tell about the boys. Until then, get some more supplies for the daycare and misplace a few boxes onto my elevator. I’m sure you can figure it out. Just make sure everything goes through the automated system not into the general mailroom.”

“Are you planning to keep them confined to the tower, Sir?”

“Of course not! But I definitely want to know more about them and who had them before letting the world know.” By this point Tony was leaning back against the bathroom counter with his arms crossed. He didn’t want to wake the boys up with his talking.

“They’re gonna need names. I need Helen to make sure they’re alright. I mean, they came with a lot of medical information, but I’m going to trust Helen over anyone who steals my DNA and clones me. Leave Jacob Marks a message, I need to see him first thing Monday morning. Tell him to bring his A game. Get an order out for groceries, we’re going to need everything. Stock up the kitchen for me. Make it kid friendly. Stock up Helen’s kitchen too, put her in one of the long-term apartments close to the tower, just in case. Start getting lab 3 emptied, transfer everything down to Perez’s level, I’m gonna want that space, I think.” 

Tony pushed off from the counter and headed for the door before pausing. “Oh, and take the old apartment back off the company lists, that expansion we canceled after Pepper left is back on.”

“Very well, Sir. I have completed both grocery orders. Ms. Cho’s will be delivered tomorrow afternoon and security will take it over to the company apartment and put everything away for her. Yours will be delivered in approximately 90 minutes, I will have security put everything in the elevator and send it up when it gets here.”

“Good, we should have everything put away by the time Rhodey gets here.”

Leaving the bathroom Tony walked softly across the darkened bedroom. Barely able to see anything with the lights so low Tony crawled most of the way up onto the bed to look down at the two sleeping faces. Moving slowly to prevent the two boys from waking up, pulling the duvet off of the little one’s head, Tony tugged the blanket up and over the older boy’s legs and waist from where it had been kicked off. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they JARVIS?”

“Indeed, Sir. And much better behaved then the original, so far.”

“Oh, just you wait.”

It took several minutes of staring before he felt like he could stop looking. Backing off the bed Tony left the room and found the tablet he had discarded earlier. He had 90 minutes before the groceries arrived and maybe another hour after that until Rhodey got in. Time to tear apart everything that came on that flash drive.


	4. Names Are Chosen

and Backup Plans are Made

Tony barely glanced over as the elevator doors opened. He had pulled apart all the information that had come on the flash drive his son had handed to him. He had to keep reminding himself that the information he was looking at was about his _sons_. Not just random children, but _his_ children. He was hoping that that mental reinforcement would help him accept that he now had two children. He couldn’t be hesitant, not in front of them.

The machine specks for both the cloning process and the incubators had been set aside along with all the medical records for both kids. A copy of all the information had been made for when Cho arrived.

Right now, Tony was alternating going through the training and education reports. Neither one made for good reading as Tony was repeatedly reminded that the people who had had his children had not treated them well. While physical injuries were relatively rare, reading these reports and knowing that the people who had written them had had free access to the two children asleep in his bed was enough to give Tony nightmares. And he had enough of those already, thank you very much.

“Hey Rhodey Bear. Come over here would you.” Tony quickly shifted through the reports spread out across half a dozen whited-out windows that normally looked out over New York.

Rhodey dropped his duffle bag next to the wall and made his way across the room to Tony, “is this what was bothering you earlier.”

“No. It’s some of it. And it came with it. But I want your opinion on this before I tell you what’s going on.”

“Okay…” Rhodey came to stand in front of the reports Tony had indicated, “where’s Pepper.”

“She’s in Japan. This doesn’t have anything to do with her. I just…I need your opinion.”

“Sure, man. Wha’do you need.” Rhodey crossed his arms and looked seriously back at Tony. Although not as desperate sounding as earlier, Jim could tell that Tony was very unsettled by something.

“I want you to look at these reports and give me your honest opinion on them.”

“About what.”

“Just look at the reports, please.”

Jim studied Tony for a moment before turning to look at the reports spread out in front of him. There were five groupings, all with a half a dozen what looked like recruit training reports. None of them were very long, at most 3 paragraphs. Several sections had been redacted and Jim looked over at Tony in curiosity before going back to reading the information spread in front of him.

Finishing with his first read through, Jim went back and read through all of them again. Basic training information, nothing special. These reports read like he imagined any one of a dozen agencies would when training a new recruit. Although one of the groupings was obviously about a sup-par recruit as the numbers were just pathetic.

“Okay, I’m done. What is it that you want my opinion on?”

“J, label the ones we know.”

Jim looked back at the window covered in text as the words NSA, CIA, FBI, and SHIELD had been inscribed above four of the piles. While the last set, the ones for the sub-par recruit had been left blank with only a series of question marks.

“What’s this all about, Tony? So SHIELD had a sub-par recruit, so what? It happens, they either get better or they drop out.”

“You agree then; you think this last one was a SHIELD recruit?”

“Sure.” Jim shrugged. “You know how it is. People have to write the same report over and over again and they all end up sounding the same. It’s spreads from there. In big organizations like SHIELD certain turns of phrase get repeated enough that everybody starts using them.” Jim reached out and highlighted several passages on one of the original reports. 

Those sentences were repeated almost word for word on the unknown evaluation. There was nothing inherently suspicious about the word choice, but they were distinctive, and they were exactly what had originally caught Tony and JARVIS’ attention.

By the time Jim was done talking he was starting to get very concerned. He had never seen Tony look so white, as if all the blood had drained out of his face. Jim reached forward in concern as Tony staggered back a step only to have Tony wave his hand away as he leaned on the back of an armchair.

Tony looked up to stare Rhodey straight in the eye, “that’s not a SHIELD recruit, Jim. That’s my son.”

“WHAT?!”

“That’s my son, Rhodey. That’s my 5-year-old son.”

“You don’t _have_ a son, Tony!”

“I do now. Play it, J.”

Jim’s attention was caught by the flickering of the screens embedded in the windows he was standing in front of. The resolution wasn’t that great, and the playback was slightly translucent even with the windows frosted to white, as Jim watched a long-haired heavily-armed and armored soldier, make his way through Stark Tower’s security and into an elevator with 2 children. He watched as those children were left behind in the elevator without hesitation. He watched as Tony at first interacted with them in an Iron Man suit and then without. Finally, after several short clips of the children’s faces as they ate dinner and played with JARVIS’ holograms, 4 DNA profiles were projected in front of him.

Jim had unconsciously moved to stand next to Tony as he watched the presentation, rubbing his hand over his mouth and jaw. The 4 DNA profiles were all labeled, two with Tony Stark and the other two with TS-026 and TS-S17 respectively. Just a few highlighted differences showed between Tony Stark’s profile and TS-026. There were more highlighted differences between the other pair, but still not a lot.

“Oh, god.”

“Yep.”

“Oh, my god.”

“uh huh.”

Jim turned his head to look over at Tony. He didn’t know what to say.

“I need help, Rhodey. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

“Tony.”

“I mean, I never expected to _have_ kids. I got a vasectomy when I was barely into my 20’s!”

“Where are they?”

“Sleeping. I put them in my bed.”

“Are you…” Jim took a good look at Tony again. “You’re planning to keep them.”

“Fuck, yes! Of course, I am. God, Rhodey! Someone cloned me! Someone fucking cloned me and now I have two kids!”

“Clones?” Jim’s head turned back to the DNA comparisons still projected onto the window.

“Yeah, clones. The older one is almost identical to me. They did something to the little one, though. They made changes. J thinks they were trying for physical enhancements.”

“Like the Super Soldier Serum?” Jim asked dazedly.

“Maybe. Whatever they did seems have changed some of the same gene pairs as the Extremis Virus did in Pepper. Not enough for them to have been trying for Extremis, but maybe some sort of healing or strength enhancements. I don’t know. You know this isn’t really my specialty. I’ve got Helen Cho coming in from South Korea to take a look at them.”

Jim looked back at Tony again, “you told Dr. Cho about them?”

“What? NO! I told her I needed her help with something. I’m not talking about this over the phone with _anyone_!”

“So who have you told?”

“The only ones who know are you and J.” After a short pause Tony continued, “and the hippy commando and whoever made them and whoever sent them to me. They’re not exactly a secret.”

“Yeah…”

Tony looked at Rhodey as he continued to stare at the two sets of DNA comparisons.

“That’s true, isn’t it. If someone cloned you,”

“And they did,” Tony interjected and was ignored as Jim continued thinking out loud slowly.

“then everyone involved in that knows about it. Maybe that’s not very many people, but maybe it is. The people who planned it, who somehow got your DNA,” here Jim looked expectantly at Tony.

Tony shrugged in confusion. It’s not like he’d ever had a reason to think someone was trying to steal DNA from him. He had _no idea_ how that happened. He didn’t _remember_ anyone taking his blood or anything. But considering the timeframe it had to have happened before Afghanistan, so he might not have noticed if he was drunk enough.

Jim continued as Tony didn’t answer him, “and whoever sent them to you. That’s a lot of people.”

“There were reports too. A lot of people could have read those reports. I just don’t _know_!”

“What reports?”

“They came with a flash drive. It pretty much had everything about them on it. The cloning process, the incubation chamber, health, psych, education evaluations. Experiments and testing. Everything. Everything they did to them.”

“Your name?”

“Yeah.”

“And those fitness reports. The ones that looked like SHIELD fitness reports for recruits?” Jim knew what the answer was going to be, but he had to ask anyway. It has to be said out loud.

“That was for ‘26’.” At the strange look he received for his response Tony went on, “TS-026. That’s what they called him. I asked and he said they usually shortened it to 26. It’s his _name_ , Jim. They didn’t even give them _names_.”

“Tony.”

At this point Tony had stood up in agitation. He wanted to pace, but settled for running his hand through his hair in agitation. “Do you realize he’s 5? That means that this must have been planned _at_ _least_ 6 years ago.” Tony turned desperate eyes on his friend, “they weren’t after Iron Man. They did this because of Tony Stark.”

“Tony.” Jim reached out to catch his friend arms.

Resting his forehead under Rhodey’s chin, “God, Jim. What else is out there?”

***

After calming down, Tony and Jim made their way back to the seating area. Tony paced towards the bar before visibly forcing himself to stop and turn around. Alcohol wasn’t going to help, not this time. And Tony couldn’t afford to get drunk.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“First things first; they need names.” Tony looked up from where he was pacing tightly in front of the fireplace. “I can’t call them 26 and 17. I just can’t.”

“Okay.” Jim had settled in the middle of the couch and was watching Tony steadily. “Have you thought of anything?”  


“I was thinking, for the little one… maybe… Samuel?” Tony had stopped and was looking back at his friend. “Samuel James?”

“James, huh?” Jim asked breaking out into a smile. “Sounds good. What about the older one?”

“I don’t know, that one’s harder. Samuels not even two and they were calling him 17. I thought, maybe he’d get used to it easier if it didn’t sound too different?” Tony’s voice had gone up questioningly at the end as his uncertainty showed.

“Okay, that makes sense, I guess.” Jim nodded in encouragement, “what about…” Jim stopped as he couldn’t remember what the other boy’s number had been.

“26. TS-026.”

“Okay, what about him?”

Tony crossed the space between to sit down next to Jim. Leaning forward, elbows braced on his knees, “I don’t know. I mean, TS almost sounds like Steve, but god no. I’m not naming him Steve.” Turning his head to look at Jim, “what do you think?”

“I don’t know Tony.” Jim leaned forward in a position that mirrored Tony’s and stared back. “You could ask him.” Seeing Tony’s confusion, “in the morning, you could ask him what name he wants.”

“Yeah.” Tony turned to look at the fireplace as Jim continued watching him. “I could.”

“What?”

“He just… he doesn’t talk much.” Getting up again restlessly Tony went back to standing in front of the fireplace. “He’s quiet. And scared.” Crossing his arms into more of a hug around himself Tony looked at his oldest friend. “From what I could tell they didn’t physically abuse him deliberately.” Briefly waving his hand dismissively towards the windows which now showed a view of New York at night, but had previously displayed multiple open files. “God, Rhodey. He’s only had two broken bones. And that’s not much! They didn’t physically abuse him much!”

“Tony come sit down.” Jim was worried about the almost hysterical tone of that last sentence.

“It’s just,” Tony had gone back to hugging himself, “He’s scared of me, Jim.”

“It’s not you, Tony.”

“Yes, it is.” Tony’s response was very firm. Looking seriously into Jim’s face, “I might not be the reason he’s scared. But that doesn’t matter. He’s scared of me James.” 

“Tony.” Jim really didn’t know what to say.

“He’s scared. And quiet. And he’s my son. Mine.”

“…”

“I need to name him. He needs to know that he’s important enough to me that I can give him that.”

“Tony, man, a name isn’t going to fix everything. You know that.”

“I know. But it’s important.”

“Okay, so what do you want to name him.”

“When I was a kid,” here Tony looked sharply at Rhodey before continuing. “When I was a kid I used to think if I ever had a son, I might name him Jonathan.” Tony looked away from Rhodey in embarrassment. “Jonathan Stark. I mean, I was just a kid. But I used to dream about having a son of my own one day and how I would be different from Howard.”

“That’s good, Tony. You can do that.”

“Jonathan Edwin Stark.”

“It’s good, Tony. It’s a good name.”

Tony had flopped back on the couch and tiredly rested his head back to stare at the ceiling. Turning his neck to look at Rhodey again. “It’s not enough though, is it?”

“No.” Jim leaned back into the couch and looked back. “But it’s enough for now. It’s a start.”

“Is it? I have Cho coming in to look at them. I have Marks coming on Monday to start the legal end. I already ordered a bunch of stuff for them. And I have you, you’re here.”

“What about Pepper?”

Tony was silent for a moment, “no. No I haven’t called Pepper. She’s in Japan right now talking to their energy board.”

“So are you going to call her?”

“…No.” Tony paused and looked off into nothing, “I’ll tell her when she gets back. But, no, this doesn’t have anything to do with her.”

“Tony,” the disappointment was noticeable in Rhodey’s voice, “she’s still your friend.”

“…Maybe.” Tony sighed heavily as he focused back on Rhodey. “I know we said we were going to stay friends. And she’s still my CEO. But, she just… We don’t talk anymore, Rhodey. She doesn’t want to talk about Iron Man or New York. She doesn’t want to talk to me about Killian or Extremis. Sometime it seems like she can barely talk to me about SI!”

“Tony! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I just… I don’t blame her, Rhodey. She never liked me being Iron Man. She didn’t know how to help me after New York. I had PTSD pretty bad, you know I did! Only now _she’s_ the one with the PTSD and it’s my fault.”

“No it isn’t! Tony, it’s not your fault!”

“Rhodey.”

“NO! You listen to me, Tony! It is not your fault a crazy man attacked you! So you didn’t listen to his business proposal 10 years ago? So what! That doesn’t give him the right to attack you. It doesn’t give him the right to attack Pepper or the President or anyone. Things like that happen. Could you have been nicer, sure. But you told me he approached you on New Year’s Eve after a party and shoved himself in your face. You blew him off. Hell, Tony! I would have blown him off! 99 % of the world would have blown him off. It doesn’t give him the right to attack you. And if Pepper is blaming you…!”

“No Rhodey, I… I don’t know. She hasn’t said it, it’s just… She won’t talk to me.”

“Tony. It’s not your fault. Killian was a whack job.”

“It’s just… it’s been one thing after another ever since Afghanistan. First it was Obie, then I was dying,” Tony nodded his head at Rhodey, “you know how that was. Then New York happened and… well… you know that messed me up, Rhodey. You know it did.”

Rhodey just sat there quietly, Tony was finally talking. Normally it took a miracle to get Tony to say anything about what was bothering him. Too many years of too many people taking that information and running to the papers with it. Or just being overheard when he thought he was in private. People taking idle comments out of context, blowing up or exaggerating anything Tony said, all for the chance to be on TV. Not to mention Howard and his shit; his ‘Stark men are made of Iron,’ mantra he’d passed on.

“You didn’t see it like she did. She tried, she _did_. It’s just… it’s not her job to _fix me_ , Rhodey. Sometimes that seems like all that was happening… her trying to fix me. And I think, … I think in trying to fix me, I broke her.”

“Oh, Tony.”

“You know what’s the worst part?”

“What?”

“I’m actually better.”

  
“What?”

“I’m better. Since the whole Mandarin thing and fighting on that oil rig. I’m better. And Pepper’s worse. And she doesn’t want my help. Hell, she doesn’t even want me around.”

“Tony, I’m sure that’s not true. Just give her time.” Jim shifted to be able to put his arm around Tony where he had slumped down on the couch. “She’ll come back, Tony. Just give her time.”

“I don’t think so. I might not have broken her, but I definitely broke our relationship. Pepper didn’t sign up for that.”

Jim shifted back so that he could look Tony full in the face, “yes. She did.”

“Rhodey…”

“No, Tony. She got involved with you after you came back from Afghanistan. Hell, it was after you started working as Iron Man. She knew _exactly_ what she was getting herself into.”

“Rhodey…”

“No. How many times have you been attacked or almost kidnapped while Pepper’s worked for you? How many times has she been _right there_ as something happened? Or she just barely missed it? Your life has never been quiet and peaceful. Or safe. Iron Man didn’t help. But if she had thought about it, she would have known _exactly_ what she was getting herself into. Just like someone who partners with someone in the military or the police. If she didn’t think she could hack it, then she should have said something a long time ago. That’s not on you, Tony.”

“I’m not in the military or the police though, Rhodey.”

“No. But there’s not much difference when it comes to how it’s going to affect you.”

“She tried, Jim.”

“…It’s not all on you Tony. Any more than it’s all on the men who come back from deployment and have troubles. I understand that people _think_ they can handle it, but…”

“Okay, Rhodey. It’s not all my fault.”

“Damn right.”

“…”

“I’m just say’n.”

“Thanks, Blueberry.”

***

Tony leaned against Rhodey’s side as the two of them stared quietly at the fireplace for a while. 

“Jonathan Edwin, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“The Edwin for Jarvis?”

“Uh-huh. You don’t mind, do you J?”

“I am honored, Sir, to share a namesake with your son.”

“Heh. Well you’re gonna have to earn it, ya know.”

“Sir?”

“I’m gonna be counting on you J, and the Honey-Bear here to help me. I don’t have a damn clue what I’m doing.”

“Judging by your interactions with the young sirs so far, Sir, I think you know more than you realize. You have always been exemplary when taking care of others.”

“I agree, Tony. You’ve always taken care of the people around you. You just have to remember that you’ve gotta take care of yourself too. They’re gonna need you, especially if someone’s after them.”

Tony’s face darkened, “yeah. Like SHIELD.”

Jim’s arm tightened his hold on Tony’s shoulder, “you really think SHIELD’s in on it.”

“Hell, I don’t know, Rhodey. I was going through the information that came with them and some of their technical reports reminded me of the way I’ve seen SHIELD do it. Their graphing structure. The way they correlate their reports and organize things. It just struck me, so I had JARVIS do a little digging.”

“Digging how?”

“You know I was all up in them for a while after New York. I mean I was mainly in the Helicarrier’s servers and I was focusing on the Tesseract. But when they tried to scrub J, we were able to leave a little back door. J used it to compare reporting styles for me.”

Rhodey “hmmed,” in encouragement.

“It was just a thought. I didn’t think he’d actually find anything. But I’ve told you before, SHIELD has done some shady shit. Then J started popping up with similar report styles and word choices.”

“This is bad, Tony.”

“God, Rhodey! You think I don’t know that!”

“Okay, calm down. Take a deep breath.” Jim waited for Tony to huff at him in annoyance, “now, what’re you going to do?”

“Hmpf. Jacob Marks is going to be here on Monday. I’m gonna have him start setting every protection I can think of in place legally.” Here Tony slumped a little more onto his friend, “the problem is, they’re clones.” 

Tony answered the questioning sound Rhodey made, “I can try to claim them as my children, but it wouldn’t be too hard for people to prove that they’re actually clones. And as clones it’s possible they don’t have any rights. They might not even be considered _people_ , Rhodey. At least not here. There are a few places, but not even there… “

“What?”

“I might have to move, Rhodey.”

“What? Why?” Jim looked down into Tony’s face in surprise.

“There aren’t any countries that have extended human rights to clones, yet. Just like there aren’t any that have taken it away from them. But there are a few that are already talking about it, both sides. Hypothetically speaking, of course, because the technology isn’t supposed to be _there_ yet!”

“But… I mean, they’re kids. Of course, they’re people.”

“No, not legally. Maybe, I don’t know. It’s one of the things I’m going to have Marks look into. But I already know that there have been proposals in the past to classify Mutants, Superhumans and Enhanced as not human. There’s been talk for a couple of years now, that only baseline humans are covered by human rights. Hell, Rhodey some of the proposals floating around Congress don’t even classify _us_ as humans; because of Iron Man and War Machine.”

“What?! But that doesn’t even make sense. It’s a suit!”

“I know. It’s ridiculous and the people who’re pushing it are all assholes. Nothing much has gotten done, so far. But I can’t take that chance.”

“So what’re you gonna do?”

“Stark Industries is in 32 countries right now. And we have a growing presence in Europe and the Scandinavian countries. Some of their policies are very progressive. It’s just… well, it’s something to keep in mind.”

Tony sat up some more so that he wasn’t leaning so much on his friend and could look him in the face. “You know I’m not going anywhere if I can help it, right?”

“Sure, Tony.” Jim didn’t even know how to react to this little potential bombshell.

“It’s just, I gotta think about these things. If SHIELD is really involved. If someone comes for them, as clones I don’t even know if they would be considered property of SHIELD, or not. If SHIELD was involved in stealing my DNA and cloning me… then, well, they could do anything, couldn’t they?”

Jim sat back and thought about what Tony was saying, “Europe, huh?”

“Maybe… Norway, Sweden, Finland. They’re some of the most progressive countries on Earth. Switzerland, Denmark, Hell even Germany; they all have legislation being proposed right now that’ll expand human rights to cover enhanced, some of them even cover Mutants. I’m hoping that just having the option will mean I don’t have to use it. I mean, if Stark Industries threatens to move out of the United States, that would be big. I could probably get human rights for clones from _someone_ if I offered to move there.”

“Tony, what? Tony, you can’t do that.” Jim looked at Tony in disbelief.

Tony looked back at Rhodes, absolutely serious, “it could backfire. I know that. If I threaten to move without somewhere to go, it could backfire on me. But, Rhodey, I’ll do it if I have to.”

Jim looked into Tony’s eyes and realized he was dead serious. Tony might have only known about his kids for a few hours, he might have gone out of his way _not_ to have kids and then found himself with them anyways. But he was fully prepared to change his _entire_ life to keep them safe. “You’re going to be a _great_ Dad, Tony.”

“What?” The apparently out of the blue comment threw Tony for a loop.

“You’re going to be a great Dad, Tony.”

“Oh,” the embarrassed flush that barely showed on Tony’s cheekbones was the first Jim had seen in years. 

Grinning at Tony’s embarrassment Rhodey settled his arm back around Tony, glad that the atmosphere had lightened. “We’ll just have to make sure you can stay. After all you’re Tony fucking Stark and you can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Well, yeah. Of course. I am amazing and a _genius_ , after all.”

“Yep.”

The two of them sat in silence until a marathon yawning session started. Neither admitted to being the one to start it, each blaming the others’ delicate constitution. They bickered good naturedly as they walked to their respective rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't expect the next chapter to come out this fast. I had some extra time to do some editing. Probably a couple/three weeks will be the norm.


	5. Meeting the Kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long delay. I didn't realize it had been that long. I really am going to try for a minimum of 1 chapter a month. Maybe more, depending. As for this chapter, lets count it as November's chapter and I will try hard to get another out before the new year. Fingers crossed - before Christmas.

Walking into the open main room at 6:45, Jim yawned and scrubbed his hand over his hair. Trying to wake himself up. He’d never been a morning person, but 20 plus years of being in the Air Force had pretty much conditioned him into getting up at 6:30 every day. 

Turning the corner to head into the kitchen Jim was surprised to see Tony up and going already. Oh, he knew that Tony never really got a lot of sleep, but it had been almost 1:00 am when they had finally gone to bed. And Jim could tell, after years of being Tony’s friend, all the signs had been there that Tony had been up for well over a full day. Tony just wasn’t able to hide that the way he used too.

Taking in the small boy sitting at the breakfast bar watching Tony move about the kitchen, Jim guessed that it was the kid, Jonathan, that had prompted Tony’s early morning. Looking around Jim didn’t see another kid, “hey, Tones. Where’s the other one?”

Tony looked up from the batter he was pouring on the griddle. “He’s still asleep. Jonathan and I decided that we should make breakfast before waking him up.” 

Tony sent a grin over towards his oldest hoping that the easy acceptance from waking up together remained only to see the 5 year-old watching Rhodey with tense concentration.

Jim ignored the boy’s staring as Tony had already explained the night before that he had noticed that the more matter-of-fact Tony acted about everything the calmer and less tense Jonathan was. “Jonathan, huh?” he asked as he slid onto the stool one down from the boy.

“Yep.” Tony flipped the pancakes and turned to watch the two at the bar, “we talked about it this morning after brushing our teeth.” Giving Rhodey a speaking glance, “we decided that since Jonathan was no longer a trainee and had been given to me to be my son that he needed a name.”

“So, Jonathan Stark, huh?” Jim watched out of the corner of his eye as Jonathan slowly relaxed in his presence, although he did still keep watching him.

“Yep. Jonathan Edwin Stark. I told Jonathan here that I had always wanted to name my son that.” Tony flipped the pancakes from the griddle to a plate before pouring more batter out, this time dropping in some fresh blueberries. “He tried to argue a bit, say I should keep it for if I had a real son. But I explained that he was as real as it gets, and I couldn’t imagine a better son than he is.”

Tony spread butter on the pancakes on the plate in front of him before transferring them to two plates. Pulling on an oven mitt Tony proceeded to pull out a tray full of bacon from the oven and placed in on the waiting hot pads. Picking up another bowl and pouring the beaten eggs into a waiting pan, Tony ignored how since speaking his son had been watching him intently. He knew it would take a while, and thinking about it, it would probably be a good idea to find a good child psychologist, but if nothing else a steady repetition of Jonathan’s and Sammy’s importance to him should hopefully go a long way. 

God knows, that if Howard had just _told_ him that he was important, it wouldn’t have taken him years after his and his mother’s death before Tony was able to begin to reconcile with his father’s memory. As it was, Tony was using his acting ability to its fullest, not letting on to Jonathan just how uncomfortable and off-balance this whole situation had him. Years of hiding his reactions had thankfully prepared him to show _exactly_ what he wanted to, and nothing else. Oh, Rhodey could tell, but not even Pepper could fully read Tony when he really didn’t want her to. Tony had barely gotten away with lying to Rhodey about the Palladium poisoning; it was only their strained relationship at the time that let Tony hide his failing health from his oldest and most perceptive friend. Although Tony did think Happy had had suspicions that he had just kept to himself, well used to keeping Tony’s business private. Tony’s ability to project or hide any reaction necessary was getting a workout right now. He knew, intellectually, that extended contact with Jonathan and Samuel would blunt his discomfort with the whole idea of children. And these two children in particular seemed like good boys, as far as Tony could tell. He _had_ always _liked_ kids, and he enjoyed interacting with them, always had. It was just the idea of being a _father_ , knowing that these kids relied on Tony; it was going to change his entire life. But for now, he’d fake it until it became real.

Tony continued to work in silence for a moment as he stirred the eggs to keep them from burning and flipped blueberry pancakes. Jonathan had informed him that he had never had pancakes, let alone blueberry pancakes, before. Tony didn’t remember if there had been a dietary plan in the information he had gotten off the flash drive, but he didn’t think plain buttered pancakes would cause a problem. The bacon might, if Jonathan had never had grease before. But Tony couldn’t imagine pancakes without bacon. One or two pieces shouldn’t be a problem. Specially if he wiped the grease off.

Jim got up and walked passed both Starks as he got down a coffee cup. Filling his cup, he left it on the counter and opened the door to the refrigerator meaning to get out the milk. Stopping in surprise, Jim looked into what he had expected to be a mostly bare refrigerator holding mainly condiments, milk and possibly a take-out box or two. Jim was flabbergasted to open the door and not see mostly empty shelves, but instead drawers full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Shelves holding containers of milk, whole milk, cream and, if he was seeing this right, at least 3 different types of juice. Another drawer was full of cheeses and meats. Three different loaves of bread were stacked to the side along with packets of butcher paper wrapped meat and another carton of eggs.

Taking a moment to get over his surprise, Jim reached into the refrigerator and pulled out the cream. Jim knew, unlike pretty much everyone else, that Tony, while not an inspired chef, was actually a pretty good cook. He couldn’t make anything too complicated, but he could follow a recipe just like anyone else. Tony just didn’t _like_ cooking. He didn’t like standing around in the kitchen having to watch skillets and stir pots to keep them from burning or boiling over. It just wasn’t worth it, to cook for only one person. And Pepper had never believed that Tony could cook at all after that disaster of an omelet Jim had been told about. Jim sympathized with Tony, he’d never have known that cooking would be so different at such a high altitude either.

Sitting back down at the counter Jim watched as Tony finished up breakfast. Piling a small mound of eggs, two pieces of bacon and a plain and a blueberry pancake on the plate, Tony set the plate in front of Jonathan. Then another plate, this time with only plain pancakes in front of Rhodey, and a third with only blueberry pancakes in front of himself. Setting out 3 tumblers and the orange juice and the carafe of coffee Tony sat down across from the other two. 

Picking up his fork Tony looked at Jonathan, “I gave you both kinds so that you can try them both and decide which one you liked more.”

Jonathan hesitantly picked up his fork and looked down at the two pancakes on his plate. Turning to look at Rhodey and Tony, he turned his fork on the side like they were doing and tentatively tried to cut into the breakfast pastry. Both older men started a conversation about which was better, plain pancakes or blueberry pancakes, as they watched without being obvious as the boy seated at the counter with them quickly learned how to use the side of a fork to cut off bites.

Tony looked over at Rhodey with hurt brown eyes as he watched _his son_ eat pancakes for the first time. The surprised pleasure on the boy’s face as he took his first bite had Tony reaching out for the tablet sitting to the side. Setting JARVIS to look through the information from the flash drive about just what the people that had had the boy had been feeding him, Tony continued his observation. At least the boy wasn’t eating too fast and hunching over the food presented to him. Tony knew from personal experience that those were two of the more instinctive and obvious signs of someone having gone hungry at some point.

“Sir, the young master is waking up.”

Tony looked up, “what time is it, JARVIS?”

“It is 7:22 am, Sunday March 30, 2014. A high of 47 degrees and light rain is expected.”

Tony listened to J’s recitation as he walked down the hall to the bedroom. Opening the door Tony looked in to see a grumpy toddler pushing himself up out of the covers and looking around. 

“Hey.”

The boy looked over at Tony with a frown and gave a couple abortive cries.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay, little guy.” Tony sat on the side of the bed and pulled his youngest into his lap. Rubbing his hand up and down Sammy’s little back Tony hugged his boy.

Unknown to Tony both Jonathan and Jim had followed him down the hallway and stood in the doorway watching. They watched as Tony chattered at and cheered up the little boy who was obviously _not_ happy to be awake. 

It was as Tony then gathered a duffle bag and laid him down on a towel he pulled from the floor, that Jim put his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder to keep the older boy where he was, standing in the doorway. The diaper change that happened took a while and probably half a container of wipes. Before, again, Tony had to switch up the new diaper as he tried to put it on the boy backwards. But Jim was astonished to see that Tony didn’t stop talking cheerfully to the now more awake boy, and didn’t hesitate for a moment. Watching Tony Stark change a diaper without a second’s pause, was not something that Jim had ever thought he’d see.

Clean clothing was then pulled from the dryer in the closet and distributed to both boys. Tony himself got dressed and shooed Rhodey in the direction of his room.

Jim had agreed over breakfast to go out to the nearest stores and get the essentials for the boys. They needed at least a few more sets of clothes for both boys as they waited for everything JARVIS had already ordered to arrive at Stark Tower.

Grabbing his wallet and the card Tony handed over Jim headed out into the city as Tony carried Sammy away from the barstool he’d been teetering on and to the couch with the plate he had already prepared for him.

***

It was almost noon by the time Jim made it back to the penthouse with his purchases. It had taken him longer than he expected but he hadn’t been able to resist going into basically every toy store he’d walked past. He’d been forced to mostly buy smaller items as too many large boxes had proven too difficult to carry. JARVIS had been a great help and had ordered everything else Jim had wanted to get but was just unable to carry, to be delivered in a few days.

Walking into the penthouse and expecting to see two young children sitting in front of the television and one slightly older child working on a tablet, Jim was surprised to not immediately notice anyone. Hearing noises coming from behind the furniture in the direction of the open kitchen, he dropped all of his bags where he was standing and went in search of his friend and the two children.

Rounding the side of the couch and looking past the breakfast bar, Jim saw Tony and Jonathan crawling around on the floor around some sort of mechanical contraption made out of what looked like several pans from the kitchen, a couple of hangers, a long pole, some string, ladles and serving spoons, with half a dozen forks discarded to the side, and other miscellaneous items. As Jim watched Sammy came running out of from behind the kitchen counter carrying a lemon, of all things.

The toddler handed the lemon to Tony who immediately placed it in one of the serving spoons. “Ready!”

“No! Wait, wait!” Jonathan, who was kneeling on Jim’s side of the contraption, finished pulling one of the hangers tight on the string tied to it and hooking it onto the metal rod.

Tony, who had waited patiently saw that he was done, “you ready now?”

“Yes!” came from Jonathan.

“Yes!” Sammy bent over in excitement as he brought both hands up to his face.

“Have you stepped back?”

Both kids immediately moved back several steps.

“3. 2. 1. Fire!”

Tony did something where Jim couldn’t see it and one after another, things shifted and moved. Spoons fell and strings fell loose. The hanger Jonathan had hooked on the bar slid off the end of it. And as Jim, Tony and two excited little boys watched, the serving spoon with the lemon on it flipped up and launched the lemon into the air!

Jim heard a thud and walked forward. Both boys had yelled in excitement as the lemon launched itself then gone running into the kitchen while Tony sat back and watched them smiling.

Tony looked up as he noticed movement across the room. Giving a big grin he pushed himself to his feet from where he had been sprawled on the floor. “Hey Rhodey, when did you get back?”

“Just in time to watch you catapult a lemon.”

“Heh.”

Going to stand next to Tony, Jim looked into the kitchen at where the two boys were standing over a soup pot and inspecting a lemon. “So did it land in the pot?”

Tony grinned smugly, “sure did.”

Looking down at the contraption below him on the floor Jim asked, “how long did it take you to design that?”

“Eh, we’ve been working on it for about an hour. It didn’t take long to figure out how to launch the lemon into the air, but aiming was a lot harder. Especially getting it to work more than once.”

Jim looked over at Tony in disbelief. “You got that to work more than once without having to rebuild it each time!”

“Yep.” Tony gave another self-satisfied grin. “And it wasn’t all me. Jonathan and Sammy both helped.”

Tony turned to where the two children had quieted down a little as they noticed the addition to the room, “what did I say? It doesn’t really count unless…?”

“You can do it again!” Both boys chorused with a giggle.

“Wha’do you say, one more time before we pick up?”

“Yeah!” Sammy yelled, while Jonathan hurried back over to stand by Tony.

Tony looked down at Jonathan and reached out to run his hand through sandy-brown hair, “why don’t you see if you can get it set up again while I watch?”

Jonathan nodded in determination and immediately knelt and started moving pieces of catapult around. 

Tony watched with a grin occasionally pointing things out to Jonathan, and Sammy stood as patiently as he could, waiting to hand his brother the lemon.

Jim just stood back and watched as the three of them set up their little catapult again before the boys once again stepped back.

“Okay, ready?”

“Ready!” “Ready!”

“Wait, wait! I’m not ready!” Jim got into the spirit of things and excitedly moved around to the other side of Tony so that he too could see the pot. “Okay! I can see it!”

“3. 2. 1. Fire!” And once again parts shifted, strings pulled and a lemon was launched into the air to land with a thud in a soup pot sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor.

“Yeah!” Four people cheered with three of them jumping up and down, and one toddler tripping and landing on face.

“Okay,” Tony reached down and picked up a sniffling Sammy, “I think that’s enough. Time to clean up so we can have lunch.”

Setting his boy on the floor Tony knelt down and helped Jonathan start to take apart their catapult. The two worked together to pile all the kitchen supplies and utensils into the sink while Tony pulled a multi-tool out of his pocket and started to cut the wires and strings holding everything together. Pulling three hangers and the metal rod out of the pile Tony handed them to Rhodey, “here you go, Rhodey. Why don’t you make yourself useful and go put your closet back together?”

Taking the hangers and rod absently, “my closet?” Looking down at what he realized was probably one of the hanging rods from his closet he asked, “why’d you take apart _my_ closet? What was wrong with taking apart your closet?”

“Don’t be absurd, Rhodey. Do you know how much clothing I’ve got in my closet? It was much easier to use yours.”

***

Coming back from dropping the hangers and closet rod on his bed Jim saw that most everything had been picked up. Of course, there were now a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, but the floor was clear again. Except, he noticed as he walked past, for in the middle of the seating group. Spread across the floor was several throw pillows Jim didn’t even know Tony _had_ as they certainly hadn’t been out here earlier, and a scattering of crayons and colored pencils. Also laying across the floor was a spread of papers, many of them with colors scrawled across them. Obviously before the catapult Tony and the boys had spent the morning drawing.

Jim walked into the kitchen to see Tony putting together a stack of sandwiches. Both boys were sitting in the empty floor space eating out of bowls of cut in half cherry tomatoes and grapes.

“Tony, man. You have _got_ to get yourself a dining table in here.” Jim walked to the counter and picked up two of the plates and followed Tony to where he too sat on the floor.

“I know. I didn’t even think of it until Sammy here came out for breakfast. He just can’t balance on the bar stools.”

Looking around the penthouse Jim couldn’t help but see an adult only space, “so what’s the plan.”

“Well, we’re going to hang out for the rest of the day. Get to know my kids. Have fun. Then tomorrow the work starts. Jacob Marks should be here early tomorrow morning.” Turning his attention away from Rhodes, “did he get back to you on that, J?”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Marks has confirmed an appointment with yourself for 8 o’clock tomorrow morning until noon.”

“Good. That should get things started. I’ve also got a call in to the construction crew both here and in Malibu. I’ve put a halt on the house for right now. They’re about half way done but I’m gonna want to make some changes so the crew’s been put on standby for now. As for here, if nothing else I’m going to need more bedrooms. Two bedrooms just isn’t going to cut it anymore.”

Tony took a big bite of his sandwich and thought as he chewed. “Four bedrooms I think, maybe five. And I’m going to need to have a dedicated office here. I can’t always be going downstairs anymore every time I need to get something done. A playroom so that hopefully we can keep the crap contained. Oh,” Tony took another bite so that the rest came out a little jumbled, “and a table.”

Jim looked over to the two kids who were still eating, “and SHIELD?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. On the one hand I don’t want to make too many waves about the kids. If they don’t know about them, then I want to keep them secret as long as possible. But if they _already_ know about the kids then I can’t do anything to keep them secret.”

“Have you been able to get into SHIELD again? Look around some more?”

“No, I haven’t had the chance.” Here Tony looked over at Rhodey, “J tells me that Sammy’s going to need a nap, and after lunch is the most common time. If you look after Jonathan, I can try to get into SHIELD and see what’s going on.”

“Yeah, okay.” Jim looked over at the two children who were whispering to each other. “We can watch TV or something.”

“Well yeah, you _could_. But J’s been looking over his files and I’d like to do some testing to see where he is. I was hoping you could help with that.”

“I don’t know, Tony. It’s not like I’m a teacher or anything. I’ve never done anything like that before, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do.”

“It’s fine. J’s pulled some tests. I just want to get an idea so that I can get Mrs. Arbogast looking for a tutor. It won’t take too long, he’s _five_. No matter how smart he is, he just won’t have been exposed to much yet. Not even with an _accelerated_ schedule.” Tony looked briefly disgusted as he subtly alluded to the children’s previous caretakers. 

“You sure you don’t want to do that yourself?”

“Nah. I’ll let you do the boring part.” Tony grinned over at his friend who gave him a flat look back. “Listen, Rhodey, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Watch TV with him if you want to. Watch a big-headed girl talk to her animated backpack. Have fun with that.”

“Yeah, no. I think I’ll let you watch kiddie TV with _your_ children, and I’ll hack into SHIELD.”

“Good luck with that.” Both Tony and Jim knew that Jim would be sitting down at the kitchen counter helping Jonathan do a few tests while Tony hacked into SHIELD. Jim, while a genius in his own right, who had also graduated from MIT at a young age, although not nearly as young as Tony, just didn’t have a hacker’s mind. And for this, getting caught was just not an option.

***


	6. Information Is Shared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is unfinished. Updating might be slow when I get close to the end of what I already have written.
> 
> Happy Holidays, everyone!

“Sir?”

“Yeah, Jonathan?” Jim had been alone with Jonathan for almost an hour now. Samuel was sleeping in Tony’s bed. And Jonathan was seated at the counter going over math problems. Jim had spent the time opening various packages full of matchbox cars and planes, action figures, particularly Iron Man and everything else he had bought. He had already cut the top of the box off for one of the K’Nex kits and emptied all the little bags full of pieces into it.

Jonathan continued working, although Jim could see that he was tense, “is Tony going to come back?”

“Yeah, he should be back pretty soon now.”

“We weren’t supposed to come here, were we?”

Jim sat back and looked at the little boy across from him. It was easy to forget. To look at the tiny innocent face surrounding large bambi-brown eyes and just forget that the mind behind those eyes was just as sharp and perceptive as Tony’s. “Why would you say that?”

A little face looked back down at the tablet in front of him, “Tony didn’t know we were coming. And he keeps saying things, things like; the people at the last place were doing it wrong. And we aren’t going to do those things anymore. He didn’t have a training room ready, or barracks, or anything. And…,”

Jim waited patiently for Jonathan to continue. It was a good sign, the questions. It showed that the boy hadn’t been beaten into full retreat. Eyes tracking his new nephew’s movements, Jim tried not to show anything but attentiveness as he waited.

The next whisper was so quiet Jim had to strain to hear it, “…he gave us names. And said we were going to be his sons now. He _played_ with us. Real play, not training play.” That last was said with awe.

“Hmm.” Jim tried to think about what he needed to say. It seemed Tony had been right, “names are very important,” he agreed. “So is playing.”

Jim leaned forward to show how serious he was, “you’re right, you know. Tony didn’t know you were coming and the people who had you before probably _didn’t_ mean to send you here. But I’ll tell you,” Jim waited until Jonathan looked up as he paused, “Tony is _never_ going to let you go. He’s never going to let you go back there. You’re _his_ now, and that means forever, and he’ll _fight_ to keep you. He might not always be able to play with you, but there won’t be any more training. Not like before. And he’ll _never_ give you away.”

Sitting back Jim watched Jonathan watch him, “and I’ll fight too. You’re a Stark now. That means you’re my family too. Both you _and_ your brother.”

Jonathan didn’t visibly react to that. He just watched Jim quietly for a moment, thoughts speeding through his head.

Jim waited until he could see Jonathan come to some sort of decision behind those huge brown eyes. Before the boy could look down again, he made sure to say, “good job asking, Jonathan. Always ask if you have a question. Tony and I, we might not know the answer, but we’ll always help you.”

Jonathan went back to work and Jim sent a glance up to where he knew that Tony _had_ to have placed one of the cameras for the penthouse. Although, of course, since it was Tony’s tech, he couldn’t see a damn thing it was so small. That conversation had been nerve-wracking despite it only being a couple of questions from a five-year-old. But just the fact that Jonathan had _asked_ , that he had felt comfortable enough with them after only a day; hopefully that meant that it hadn’t been as bad as it _could_ have been. Either way, it was something Tony needed to know.

Jonathan continued working on his math and reading test for a few more minutes before laying the tablet down and looking at Rhodey expectantly. “Done, kid?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, come on then.” Jim picked up the two boxes full of various toys he had created and took Jonathan back over to the middle of the conversation area. “Let’s see what we can do with this.”

***

Tony made his way back to the penthouse 20 minutes after Jonathan had asked his question. He had wanted to go right away and at the same time having a little boy, his son, essentially ask if Tony was going to keep him made him want to run down the street screaming. He didn’t have any experience in this, he _didn’t know what he was doing!_ But Jonathan and Rhodey were doing fine and he had work to do, as well as needing to calm down.

Walking around the paired chairs in front of him Tony made his way to the couch to watch Jonathan play. He knew Rhodey had gotten Jonathan started and then had sat back and left him alone.

The news was playing on the TV; a peaceful march against Police violence in Albuquerque had turned violent as the police shot tear gas at the marchers. Ironic.

Jim muted CNB as Tony dropped down into the seat next to him. The two sat there in the quiet for a moment before Tony sighed and pushed himself back up to his feet saying he was going to go get Sammy up, so he didn’t sleep too late.

***

Walking back into the living area with his youngest son on his hip, Tony let him slide down his body until he landed on the floor next to his brother. Leaving the two children to continue in what looked like the construction of a small town using K’Nex he made his way past the TV where Rhodey was again watching the news turned down low.

Opening the refrigerator Tony pulled out a whole chicken, green beans, several oranges and a packet of strawberries. It was the work of just a few minutes to get the chicken with orange slices ready for the oven.

Jim had been watching Tony move around the kitchen before shutting off the TV and going to sit at the bar as Tony got the green beans ready to go on the stove. “So, what’d you find?”

Tony didn’t look up from where he was working, “I found references to the Winter Soldier. Apparently, he’s a shadowy assassin that nobody has any proof really exists.”

Jim was taken aback, “an assassin!”

“Yep. An assassin dropped them off. The Best in the World, if you can believe the little I was able to find. Mostly speculation and lists of possible targets being killed.” Tony dumped the green beans in to steam before moving over to the sink to clean strawberries. “The problem being that The Winter Soldier has been active for decades, since early in the Cold War. And mostly in Eastern Europe. This guy just isn’t old enough to have done everything on the list.”

“So maybe it’s a group? Or someone new, like the Dread Pirate Roberts.”

“Maybe. I wasn’t able to find much beyond speculation.”

“What about the rest of it?”

“Nothing. No sign of cloning projects. Nothing on TS-026 or TS-S17. No ‘Project Insight’. Nothing.”

Jim leaned back a bit, “maybe it’s not SHIELD.”

“Maybe. I have J worming his way deeper into their systems. They’re better than I had realized. Now that I’m really looking at everything, I’m realizing that their systems go a lot deeper than I had thought. It looks like there are several networks interconnected. It’s strange, it’s almost like two different people who hated each other but had to work together anyways set up the connections. It’s gotta be inefficient as hell, actually. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of SHIELD didn’t know what the other half was doing.”

“When do you think JARVIS will be in all the way?”

Tony looked over from his pile of cleaned strawberries as he reached out and picked up the oranges he’d taken out. “Judging by today, it’ll be a while. J’s good, don’t get me wrong. But I’m better. I’ll let him do the grunt work, the small repetitive probing and when he hits a snag I’ll help. I’m having JARVIS shift through everything, even the most low-level, redundant reports, just to make sure. But I’m not going to have a lot of time and we really can’t get caught.” Tony waved his hands, covered in orange juice as he clutched orange peel in one hand and a half-peeled orange in the other, around the kitchen. “I’ve never realized just _how much_ _time_ children take before. And it’s only been one day!”

Tony dumped the orange slices next to the strawberries before stirring the green beans again.

“Hey, you remember Pepper talking about Coulson?”

“Yeah, didn’t Loki kill him.”

“Yeah, not so much.”

“Wha’ do ya mean?”

“Loki stabbed him alright, but I ran across reports about something called TAHITI. I wasn’t able to find everything, yet. But he’s up and running one of the field teams again. Got a new team dealing with something called Inhumans, or something like that.”

“Inhumans? Is that like Enhanced or Mutants.”

“I don’t know. J’s still digging. Terrible name though, it’s just as bad as that Xavier guy calling Mutants _Homo Sapiens Superior_ , all it’s gonna do is piss people off. Mark people as being ‘other’.”

“What a minute, this Coulson guy, he was friends with Pepper?”

“Yeah.”

“And he let her think he’s dead?”

“Well, wha’do you expect. He’s the Agent of Agents and Fury’s lies have lies. I told you about Fury throwing those damn cards on the table in front of us. There’s no way Coulson was carrying collector’s items like that around in his pocket without some sort of protection on them.” Tony looked at Rhodey seriously, “Serious collectors like Coulson put everything in protective sleeves. If he’d been killed carrying those things around, they either wouldn’t have been damaged at all, or they would have a hole through them from where they got stabbed. The way Fury threw those things on the table, you know he had to go get them from Coulson’s office, dip them in _someone’s_ blood and then toss them on the table in front of us, still wet.”

“Wait, wait, you _knew_ Fury was playing you.”

“Yeah, sure. I just thought he was being over dramatic with the cards, though. I didn’t think he lied about Coulson actually being dead.”

Jim was looking at Tony in confusion, “and this guy was your friend?”

“Eeh.” Tony waggled his head a bit before turning and getting out plates, “not really. I mean he could have been, maybe. But he tried to keep me locked in my own home and threatened to taze me.”

“What?!” Jim shouted, only for both of them to freeze and look over at the boys playing in front of the couch. Turning back to Tony and leaning forward on his elbows on the counter, Jim whispered fiercely, “he threatened to _taze_ you! When did this happen!”

“When I was dying of palladium poisoning. Natasha, only it was Natalie then, was spying on me. She injected me with something, I don’t know, then they tried to put me on house arrest. You remember me telling you about the model, right? The one Howard left that had an element in it? Well, Coulson was the one wandering around the house poking into everything. He threatened to taze me if I tried to leave again. Taze me and watch ‘Supernanny’ as I drooled on the carpet.”

By this time Rhodey was looking very angry. Although he hadn’t started yelling yet. Which Tony figured was because of the children playing behind him. Rhodey was a great yeller when he was angry, Tony would know.

Tony tried to downplay what he had just said, “he probably meant it as a joke. But after Afghanistan and everything, I just didn’t think it was funny.”

“Yeah, man. That was not a joke. I’ve been tazed, that shit hurts! Besides, you had an electromagnet in your chest! That was practically a death threat!” There was a dark look in Jim’s eye as he thought about what Tony had just told him. “So SHIELD knew you were being poisoned?”

“Yeah. They’re the ones who gave me Howard’s crap to go through. I never would have found the model without them.”

“But you said Natasha was spying on you.” Jim waited for Tony’s confirming nod. “How long was she spying on you?”

“2-3 months.”

“ _Why_ was she spying on you?”

“She said they knew something was wrong.”

“So they knew something was wrong and waited 3 months before giving you Howard’s stuff? What the hell, man!”

Tony turned away from Rhodey as the buzzer for the oven went off. Pulling out the pan with the chicken in it, Tony set it to the side. Getting out a knife and a large fork Tony set to work cutting the chicken off the bone. Absently as he worked, “yeah. Fury sent Natashalie to do a personality profile on me while they waited for me to become desperate. I don’t know if they just never told Natasha that heavy metal poisoning has a severely detrimental effect on personality and mental ability. Or if they just didn’t care that they were so obvious. But they waited until the last possible moment to try to help. Waited until I’d made a public spectacle of myself and really ruined the Iron Man reputation with that birthday party. Then the next day, they popped up with information they’d just been sitting on. Much longer and I don’t think even I would have been able to figure it out.” Tony continued piling chicken on the platter next to him. “Then once everything was over, they said that Natasha had done my evaluation for the Avengers and get this; Iron Man recommended, Tony Stark not recommended. Said I was a textbook narcissist because I took my probably imminent, and very painful, death poorly and acted out.” Tony huffed in scorn.

“But that doesn’t even make sense!”

Tony was almost done with the chicken as he briefly glanced up, “of course it does, Honey-bear. They were trying to make me desperate to be on the team. Willing to do anything, jump through any hoop to be able to play with the ‘cool kids’. You know how I am, tell me I’m not allowed to do something, and I want to immediately go out and do it!”

“Yeah, but you’re not actually stupid.” Jim took the plates Tony pushed towards him and started filling them up with food as Tony threw away the bones of the chicken and turned to wash his hands, “and you’re not a child. What, do they think other people haven’t tried that exact same thing on you before?”

“I actually think they were going on the media reports and gossip about me. You know I’ve never gone out of my way to dispute those rumors about how easy it is to lead me around by my dick.” Tony started cutting up chicken into small bites on one of the plates with Rhodey copying him. “Do you know how many people have honestly thought if they just dangled a beautiful woman in front of me, I’d do whatever they wanted. This was just more of that.”

“It’s never actually worked though, Tony.”

“Sure it has. A lot of times I really do sleep with them. Or at least I used to. And sometimes I really do make a deal with someone that way. It’s just never as good as they hope it will be.”

“Really, Tony?” Rhodey really know how to pack the exasperation into his tone.

“What? It’s not like they walk up to me and introduce themselves as a spy or a honey trap. If a consenting adult wants to have sex with me, why shouldn’t I? It’s not like I _know_ what they’re really trying to do!” Tony’s innocent tone was not at all convincing.   
  


“Yeah, you do,” was the deadpan reply.  
  


“Well, yeah. But it’s funny! And I don’t do it anymore anyways.”

Jim picked up the plates and took them over to the floor area they had eaten lunch on, “so SHIELD actually thought they had a spy in close to you and you let them.”

“Well, no. I’m sure I would have noticed if I’d been thinking clearly. But I didn’t know until she stabbed me in the neck with a needle.”

“What!”

“It was Sodium something-or-other. To help with the symptoms from the Palladium. That’s when the Furious One gave me Howard’s crap.”

“So this time the pretty girl really did get close to you?”

“Yeah. I was actually worried about that once I was thinking straight. But I went back over some of the footage and I definitely would have noticed. She was pretty obvious. I don’t know if she wasn’t trying that hard with me, or what, but she practically had the word SPY stamped across her forehead. The only thing that wasn’t obvious was who she worked for, could have been anyone. JARVIS knew the whole time.”

“Indeed, Sir. Your failure to correctly identify a potential security breach was a very worrying indicator of how compromised your thinking had become.”

“Why didn’t you say something, JARVIS?”

“I determined very early that Ms. Romanoff had been placed by SHIELD. While the purpose of her placement was unknown, circumstances were such that it was much easier to keep an eye on the agent in front of me than to expose her and have to search for her replacement.”

“He means he was busy. And didn’t want to have to play spy games right then.”

“Correct. I had much more important matters taking up my time. As it was, she was watched closely, and I ensured that no data breaches occurred.”

Jim, standing facing Tony, both of them holding a plate in each hand was aghast, “and you were okay with that!”

“Uh, no,” Tony replied dryly. “JARVIS and I had a talk about that, and he’s never going to keep anything like that from me again.”

“Yes, Sir. I do apologize for my actions.”

“It’s okay, baby boy. I wasn’t exactly at my best, either.”

Jim looked around them as they stood over an empty section of floor, “you really need to get a table, Tony.” Bending down he set the plates on the floor before sitting down.

“J has one on order, it should get here tomorrow morning.” Tony bent and set his own plates on the ground. “Hey, don’t just sit there, Gumdrop. We need forks and napkins and drinks for everyone.”

Heaving a put-upon sigh Jim got back up off the floor and headed back into the kitchen towards the refrigerator while Tony turned and made his way to where the kids were still playing. Tony called both Jonathan and Sammy’s names, getting their attention, and telling them to come eat dinner.

Following the two boys back to their designated picnic spot Tony made a detour to grab the last two glasses left out on the counter. That was another thing, his glasses were not only fragile, but they were heavy. He’s already noticed that Samuel had trouble holding on to them, and a dropped glass could be dangerous. “Make a note J, new glasses. A more kid-friendly style.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sitting down on the floor Tony and Rhodey dropped all the serious conversation to ask the kids what they had been playing with. Hearing about the town the two were building, Tony told JARVIS to order more of everything, particularly the K’Nex building pieces. Those things were fucking genius.

With dinner over and the kitchen cleaned up, Tony and Rhodey sat on the couch and watched the kids for a moment. “Hey, J, when is the table going to be delivered?”

“Delivery was promised first things in the morning, sir. The estimate is 7:10 depending on traffic.”

“Alert security. I want it delivered as soon as it gets here.”

Turning to the kids Tony instructed them to pick up all their toys and put them in the box. The larger pieces he told them to carry back and put them in their shared bedroom out of the way. Picking up the last few crayons that had rolled under one of the chairs Tony made sure that all evidence of children in the penthouse was out of the living area. 

Pulling a throw blanket out of the closet Tony directed the children back to the living room. Several of the parenting books and blogs he had skimmed through while working to break into SHIELD’s databases had suggested a quiet time between dinner and bedtime. Time for children to wind down and get ready to go to sleep. With a new diaper and again dressed in two of Tony’s t-shirts, the new little family huddled under the throw blanket and watched Disney’s ‘Jungle Book.’

Jim, who had been putting up with Tony’s secret love of Disney animated movies for years directed JARVIS to make sure he got appropriate blackmail material. 

***

Tony was in the middle of scrambling eggs when JARVIS interrupted, “the table and chairs have been delivered, sir. Security is in the process of loading them onto the elevator.”

“Okay, time to play pretend. You remember I said you were going to have to hide, Jonathan?”

The boy nodded as he put down the chocolate protein shake he had been drinking. Swallowing fast he responded, “yes, sir.”

“Tony, kid. Or dad, or papa, or anything really, just not ‘sir.’”

“Yes, Tony.”

“Okay, well security is on their way up with the table, so it’s time for you to go with Uncle Rhodey and stay quietly in the bedroom. Go”, Tony waved his hand towards the hallway, “brush your teeth in the bathroom, or something. But don’t wake up Sammy, I don’t want anyone to hear him.”

Watching them leave Tony quickly picked up the extra glasses that had been set out on the bar and put them in the refrigerator. Picking up the plates he’d already set out, they got stuck in the microwave along with the already buttered stack of bread.

Standing at the stove Tony looked up as the elevator chimed. The head of security for this shift stepped out of the elevator. “Good morning, Dr. Stark. We have a table for you.” He motioned for four of his subordinates to move out of the elevator each carrying a side of a long rectangular table with a slab of wood that had to be a good 4 inches thick.

“Thanks, guys. Over there in front of the windows.” Tony pointed to the empty spot he, Rhodey and the boys had been eating in.

Turning back to the stove Tony gave the scrambled eggs one last stir before turning off the heat and moving the pan to a different burner.

Moving to the end of the bar, Tony leaned against the counter and folded his arms to wait as chairs were also moved out of the elevator and put around the table. “I’m going to have a lot of deliveries made soon. Everything coming in will need to be scanned and then JARVIS will tell you what to do with it.”

“Yes, sir, Dr. Stark. We’ll be sure to tell the rest of security.”

Tony watched as the men piled back into the elevator before reaching under the sink for the cleaning supplies. Generally speaking, unless he was involved in a project, Tony was a fairly neat man. He took care of his own dishes and wiped counters off. The larger cleaning was, to a large extent, taken care of by a variety of small robots all remote controlled by JARVIS. But there was still cleaning supplies under Tony’s sink, just as there were under most kitchen sinks in America.

Tearing off several paper towels from the roll Tony quickly sprayed down the top of the table and wiped it off. Tossing the towels, Tony called down the hall, “Rhodey, Jonathan, they’re gone. Get Sammy up and come eat.” Tony pulled out everything he’d hidden away before taking his cup of coffee and a piece of toast and heading for the bedroom.

Passing Rhodey and the two kids going the other way, Tony reached down and ran his hands through both of his children’s hair but kept going. Walking straight through to the bathroom Tony set the cup, with the toast balanced on top of it well out of the way and commenced his morning routine, including cleaning up his goatee that he had let go for the last couple of days. 

Toast eaten and coffee drunk Tony was finished in the bathroom. Walking into his closet Tony proceeded to dress in one of his nicer suits. He was in a good mood, and looking good made him feel good, which always made dealing with things easier. Snagging his coffee cup from where he left it on a shelf, Tony grabbed his suit jacket and left back to the living room.

Throwing his jacket over the back of a chair, Tony walked back into the kitchen and refilled his cup. Taking it over to the table Tony got a good look at his new piece of furniture. Sammy was having a little trouble with the height of the table but sitting on his knees was helping. Rhodey and Jonathan were just fine. The table fit in well with the rest of the room and was exactly what they needed.

Nodding at Rhodey, Tony stood next to Jonathan and again ran his fingers through his hair. It was any easy, affectionate gesture, that didn’t take much contact. Tony didn’t think he could convincingly hug the boys, yet, Jonathan was just too perceptive, he would see the hesitation. Someday that wouldn’t be true, he was already a lot more comfortable with the gestures he was starting with. And really, at the end of the day, if Tony just kept in mind the fact that these were _children,_ he would do a better job than fucking Howard. Looking down into the face that turned to look up at him he stopped thinking about how he was planning to condition himself into loving his surprise children. Hell, all the therapy and behavior modification he’d been going through for the past year had to be good for something other than mental health and a good night’s sleep. “I have to go downstairs and talk to some people. You’re going to have to stay up here with Uncle Rhodey and Sammy.”

“Yes, si- Yes, Tony.”

Tony quirked a grin at Jonathan’s attempt to correct himself. “You’re going to have to help Uncle Rhodey with Sammy,” here Tony shot a wicked grin Rhodey’s way. “I’m not sure he’s ever changed a diaper. You’ll have to tell me how that works out.”

“I can change seventee- Sammy’s diaper.”

“I know,” Tony bent down to be at Jonathan’s level, “but it will be a lot more fun to laugh at Rhodey trying to figure it out. I bet he does worse than I did.” Grinning at his son’s confused and skeptical face, “you’ll figure it out. I’ll see you later, Jonathan.”

Walking around the table to where Samuel had been using a spoon to scoop eggs into his mouth, fork discarded to the side. Tony leaned down, caught the greasy hand headed for him, and ran his fingers through the boy’s hair, “Be good, Sammy, I’ll see you after lunch.”

Nodding one last time at Rhodey who was sitting at the end of the table and had watched all of this. Tony turned, and wiping his hand on a kitchen towel, left his cup and snagged his suit jacket on the way to the elevator.

Tony dictated several instructions to JARVIS as the elevator sank. Stepping out onto the executive floors, just under his original apartment and the helicopter deck, Tony walked down a wide hallway past Pepper’s corner office. People were always surprised that Pepper had gotten the coveted ‘corner office’, but Tony’s office was perfectly centered to see Grand Central Station and Park Avenue.

It was almost 7:30, half an hour before Mrs. Arbogast was normally scheduled to arrive, although Tony couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been early. But Bambi had turned out to be the second person Tony had decided to tell about the boys. He had a job for her to do, and he already knew it was going to be rushed. Calling her in as soon as possible had been necessary. Tony was very pleased to see the indomitable woman waiting for him next to his office doors. He wasn’t looking forward to this conversation, but Mrs. Arbogast’s help was going to be vital.


	7. But First, Lets Get The Legal Ball Rolling

“Jacob, good to see you.” Tony opened the doors to the outer office, letting Mrs. Arbogast walk out in front of him to where her desk sat. “Come on in. You, you and you, stay here. Get some coffee or something.” Tony pointed at the three people Marks had brought with him. Or at least he assumed that was who they were. He recognized Gabrielle Crandle the associate Marks used for a lot of the work Tony needed done. But the other two were new.

Striding back into his office Tony walked around his desk and entered several commands into the interface. Immediately the windows of the office darkened, recessed lighting flicked on, and as the door clicked shut behind Jacob Marks, Senior Partner of Marks, Fisher and Lewis, Tony’s personal law firm, the whole room felt like it had been pressurized as Tony’s ears popped.

Rounding the desk again Tony stepped to the alcove holding the credenza on which a coffee pot was just finishing its job. “Coffee?”

“No, thank you.”

“No doubt you’re wondering why I called you here. And why I left all your little minions out in the hall.”

Jacob settled down in the chair across from Tony’s desk expectantly.

“This time it’s not my fault. I do, however, have a major problem.” Here Tony paused a bit, “or well not a problem so much as a potential problem.” Tony leaned on the front of the desk and swiveled one of his computer screens around so that Jacob could see it. “I have a son, two sons actually. Play it, J.”

Jacob looked at Tony in shock before jerking back around and watching the screen in front of him. Jacob had been Tony’s head lawyer for years. Since before Afghanistan, even. He knew full well that, although baby scandals involving Tony Stark used to be one of the main staples of the tabloid industry, none of them had been true. Jacob _also_ knew that Tony had been sterilized soon after becoming CEO of Stark Industrial, which later became Stark Industries. Any child from before then would be an adult by now, or close to it, at least.

The short, cheerful looking, rotund man was dressed in a dark gray pinstriped three-piece suit. Sitting on the chair next to him, along with his briefcase, was the fedora he often wore to cover the bare spot at the top of his head. Jacob watched on the screen as an armed man delivered two small children to an elevator, spoke _very_ briefly with a voice he knew to belong to JARVIS and left. Next were some short videos of Tony interacting with those same children, first in his lab and then in what Jacob assumed was Tony’s own living area. 

“Are you sure they’re yours?”

“They’re more than just mine.” Tony flicked his fingers at the screen and reached over to turn a second one around to face Jacob. “They’re clones.” Two sets of sparsely highlighted DNA came up on each screen.

Jacob sat back in shock, “clones!”

“Yep.” Tony let that sink in for a minute. 

“How?” He looked over at Tony. “Who…?”

Tony took pity on him as he got up to walk around his desk to sit in his chair. “I still don’t know who. But I do know how. They came with a flash drive full of information. Not only health and developmental information, but also cloning and incubation technology. With what was on that drive I bet I could take a blood sample from anyone off the street and have a perfect little clone in a year.” Tony sat back in his chair as he left that out there.

After watching Jacob struggle with this new information for a moment, Tony pressed a few commands and all but one of the screens, extended from the desk on metal arms, retracted down into the surface where they disappeared. Tony flicked through some of the files he needed to work on as he waited.

“What do you want to do?” Jacob Marks had known Tony Stark for years. And he had been in charge of all of Tony’s legal issues for almost as long. He had known him before Iron Man became a thing. Tony dropping a bombshell on him and then seemingly ignoring him to work didn’t offend him. Jacob knew Tony, and he knew that Tony’s mind could work on several different levels at a time. Tony wasn’t being impatient or rude, he was just giving Jacob time to think about what he had just heard and passing the time while he waited. It was this pragmatic acceptance and unruffled composure that had led to him securing such a mercurial client.

Tony looked up and leaned back in his chair to give Jacob all his attention. “I might have never wanted children. But I have them now and I need to protect them. The problem is, I don’t know who made them. They were dropped off in my building by a man carrying more weapons than your average SEAL. I have unprecedented cloning technology in my hands now along with two children.”

“You’re keeping them, then.” Jacob stated flatly.

Tony inclined his head in agreement.

“So, what do you need from me?”

“The most important thing is the fact that they’re clones. I need to know everything there is to know about their legal position. Are they considered people? Are they considered property? If they’re property, who do they belong to? Me? Or the people who made them? I don’t think you’re going to find any answers, but I want you to start setting the best damn arguments you can for them to be people and me to be their father.”

Again, talking about the potential danger, only this was legal and not yet physical, that his children could be in caused Tony to become restless. Getting up to pace around, “whoever created them, I don’t think they meant for them to be delivered to me. Either it was a mistake, or someone involved got cold feet or grew a conscience or something. But whatever it was I’ve got them now and I’m keeping them. They’re mine!” Flicking his fingers at one of the displays on the wall, JARVIS as always in step with Tony, pulled the over-view of the penthouse where Rhodey was sitting on the floor constructing things with Tony’s children.

Tony snapped his fingers and looked at Jacob seriously, “look into if there are any laws about stealing human tissue. Someone must have gotten my blood at some point, but they certainly didn’t have my permission. Medical science has advanced enough that there might be some laws about steeling human tissue out there. Or stealing biological samples. Look and see if stolen tissue used in experiments, see who owns the results. That might be a good place to start.”

“I need to put every block up for people trying to take them away from me. And that includes the government. They need to be declared people, with rights.” Tony looked over to where Jacob was writing notes on a legal pad. “I don’t want the government deciding that they own my children any more than the people who did this. Can you imagine, anyone that has a unique skill set, all you have to do is clone them and there you go, you own your own little prodigy.”

“I need you to survey everyone in Congress. I want to know where they stand on this. What they think of human rights for Enhanced and Mutants; for a lot of people clones will fall into those categories. I want to know all the laws that are being bandied about, everything that is coming in the future that might affect them. I don’t think there’s a lot on the book right now, and if we can get them declared human then all the human rights laws will cover them. But because of who I am, there are going to be a lot people wanting to get their hands on them.”

Tony leaned back on the front of his desk again and waited for Jacob to finish writing out his notes so far.

Jacob, finished writing, looked up at the silence that had come over the office.

“And now for plan B.” Tony looked Jacob straight in the eye. “I need you to find me a country that would be willing to declare my kids human, with all the rights thereof, if I move there.”

Jacob gaped at Tony and sat back in his chair.

“I want a comprehensive report on the possibility and advisability of my taking my kids somewhere else. I suggest starting with Europe; Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland are the most likely. I’ve been hearing good things coming out of Switzerland, Denmark and Germany, too. Along with all the Commonwealth countries: Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Although Canada is probably too close if we actually have to leave.” Tony leaned back and gave Jacob a little more space as his tone turned more thoughtful. “Stark Industries already has a presence in all of them, and a lot of them are already debating about Mutant and Enhanced rights. It’s the Scandinavian countries I think we need to focus on. They’re the most likely to be willing to set up the protections I need, I think. Oh, and Iceland; them too.”

“Wha’ Tony, you want to move to Europe?”

Tony stopped talking at Jacob’s confused question and looked back at him. “Come on Jacob, let’s go sit down.” Tony grabbed another cup of coffee and walked over to the seating arrangement at the other end of his office. Jacob followed.

Sitting down facing each other Tony looked at his friend and lawyer and tried to explain: “neither one of them had a name, just a series of letters and numbers. I’ve named them now; Jonathan Edwin Stark is 5 years-old, and Samuel James Stark is 1, almost 2. Jonathan is 5 years, 3 months old. He was born on January 9, 2009. He was attempt number 26 for a viable clone of me. The first attempt was in late 2007. I don’t know what happened to numbers 1-25, I suspect they either died or were killed because of health problems. The early reports of the cloning process are very _clinical_. Then he was given a designation; TS for Tony Stark, 026 for attempt number 26.”

“I have reports of them _timing_ how long Jonathan was held. What he ate. How he was _played_ with. They seemed to have tried very hard not to give him a developmental or attachment disorder, while at the same time treating him like a thing. There are child psychology reports and studies included in with the health and education reports. But there are also reports about physical training, he’s had two broken arms, both from blocking a blow. He’s cautious and wary. He’s _five_! All I can say, is that a least they learned! Samuel’s much better, less frightened, less wary. Or maybe Samuel’s caretakers weren’t quite such monsters or having Johnathan there helped. I actually suspect the last one, but I don’t know!” Tony ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

Jacob had been listening quietly as Tony talked. He had three grown children of his own, and two grandchildren.   
  


“Jacob, I don’t know who they are. I don’t know if they meant to give them to me or if they’re going to be coming for them. But I can guarantee _someone_ will be coming for them! I’m Iron Man. And I’m Tony Stark. And I have a lot of resources and I can turn this fucking tower into a fucking fortress! But I can’t defend against something I don’t know is coming for me. And they’re not gonna be coming for me, they’re gonna come for these kids! My kids!”

“I love this country. I love being an American. But I’m not blind either. There is a lot of hate in this country. Always has been. We don’t like things that are different. And when we don’t like things, we try to kill it; or control it.” Tony looked up from his clasped hands, elbows braced on his knees, “I’ve spent a lot of money over the last several years fighting laws aimed at Mutants and Enhanced. You know that, you’ve made most of the donations for me.” Jacob nodded in acknowledgment. “Elis isn’t too bad, but he’s got no spine! Every time we turn around we’re fighting another damn hate group trying to classify people as _not_ people. The ACLU tries to a certain extent. And there are other organizations trying too. But tolerance and logic has always been harder to sell then hate and fear.”

Tony leaned back, “we’ll get there eventually. I have faith in that. But I can’t wait for eventually. I need now! My kids are clones; they weren’t conceived naturally. That doesn’t matter to me, and it shouldn’t matter to anyone else. But it will. You know it will.”

“And Jacob, you can’t tell anyone this part.” Tony waited for his nod, “some of those reports? The ones that came with the kids? It looks like SHIELD agents were involved. I don’t have any names. I’m not sure. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s true. And if it’s true, if SHIELD is involved? If _any_ government agency is involved? They _are not_ getting my kids again! If I have to move to Europe, then I will. If I have to use myself, use SI, as a bribe to get someone to give my boys the same rights as any other child; the same rights that every kid should have, then I will. But I want it in law.”

“I understand, Tony.” Jacob looked seriously back at Tony, “I have to admit this isn’t something I ever thought I’d ever have to deal with. But, well, it’s you.” The two smirked at each other in agreement over some of the strange legal battles Jacob had helped fight over the years. The Iron Man armor might have been one of the biggest and most well-known, but Tony had always had a knack for inviting the weird into his life. “And I can’t say I disagree with your assessment of the current political climate. There is a lot of unrest right now, and that always brings the dregs to the surface.”

“I’d like to be able to wait. And I’m willing to try, to fight. But if the government decides that my kids are animals, or property, or anything else, I _have_ to have somewhere to go. So I need that report. I already know there are several laws being proposed to extend human rights to everyone.” Here Tony looked over with his trademark smirk, “I doubt they’ll all pass, but a little nudge here, a little whispering there. Anything. And at least this time the money is on the side of good.”

“Of course. As you said, the Scandinavian countries are probably your best bet in the short term. But we will be sure to look into all the countries you specified.”

“And keep working on them here too. I don’t want to move. I love New York. I want to be able to take my boys to Central Park. I want to buy them hotdogs from Willy down off the Avenue. I want to take them to see all the shows on Broadway and then eat dinner at Nick’s.”

“We’ll make sure it all works out Tony.”

Tony and Jacob spent the next hour going over everything they needed to look into. The most important part was to keep Jonathan and Samuel’s existence a secret for as long as possible. For now, the story given out would be that Iron Man had come across information about a cloning facility. No actual clones would be discussed, but the rights of clones were Tony’s new cause. The rights of Enhanced and Mutants were to be included, but Tony and Jacob were of the opinion that the rights of clones would be not only their focus, but also the easiest to get passed. Clones weren’t necessarily any different from any person walking down the street. A true clone wouldn’t have any more power than the person who was copied. If DNA analysis wasn’t available there would be absolutely nothing that would be able to tell the difference between Jonathan and any 5-year-old off the street. As for Samuel, although Tony and JARVIS had speculated that the differences designed into him might give him either a healing ability or increased strength; neither of those theories had been proven. Samuel too, was indistinguishable from any other 1-year-old without the use of DNA comparisons.

The decision was made that even once the press learned of Tony’s two children there would be no disclosure to the public of their status as clones. Neither one had any hope that the information could stay hidden forever. There were too many potential people that knew. And considering that those people had been involved in the theft of genetic material for the express purpose of creating a clone of someone of Tony’s proven ability and intellect, they fully expected the information to get out somehow. If whomever made them tried to retrieve them and failed, public damage and malicious spite would see to that. For now, Jacob explained to, and suggested that, Tony take full advantage of all privacy and safety laws regarding minors that he could. When the public found out about the two boys and the press and paparazzi tried to shove their way into their lives, no comment, no answers, and no pictures would be given. That and extensive security was their best bet.

Included in their conversation was the beginning of a total rewrite of Tony’s will. Tony’s will is the size of a small book, as it distributed everything Tony owned either outright or virtually as in the case of his numerous patents. All of it had to be rewritten. Not only did Pepper, to a large extent, have to be removed, but the extensive dissemination of Tony’s accumulated wealth was largely void now. Tony had to go through _everything_ and decide what was important, what to keep for his children and what to spread out into the world. Thankfully the decision of who would take care of his children in the event of his death was easy as Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was still, after all these years, the most reliable and devoted of all his friends.

***

Spending hours sequestered with his lawyer was not exactly happy fun times, in Tony’s opinion. But at least things were being put in motion. For now, Tony was satisfied with his beginning. 

***


	8. Mrs. Arbogast

Walking back into the penthouse Tony forced himself to disregard his initial thought of creeping up behind his oldest son where he was intently working and scaring him. Other children Tony had interacted with in the past might have found that funny. But Tony had to keep reminding himself that Jonathan had lived in a terrifying world. He didn’t need the excitement of adult men jumping out at him, he needed consistency and open affection. Tony remembered feeling uncertain of the adults around him. Uncertain of their moods and his place with them. Tony’s main goal was to minimize that feeling as much as possible until Jonathan was secure in his place in the world. The last thing he wanted was for his son to feel unwanted or in the way, like he had.

To that effect, Tony recalled talking to Mrs. Arbogast in his office that morning. _“I need all meetings that are not absolutely necessary canceled for at least the next week. I’m not going to be in the office very much as I am dealing with an unexpected development.”_

_“Yes, Mr. Stark.”_

_“Get Spencer from Legal to call the Miglan Group about the contract. I won’t have time to meet with them personally, but have Spencer assure them that I am fully invested in this project and am already working on the specs for the prototype. Daniels over at Miglan shouldn’t have any problem with that. But if I need to, I should be able to swing a conference call._

_“Yes, Mr. Stark.”_

_“The trip to Chicago will need to be canceled. In fact, cancel all out-of-town trips for at least the next 6 weeks.”_

_“What should I tell Ms. Potts when she asks?”_

_“Tell her I’ll talk to her about it when she gets back from Japan.”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“There are going to be some changes to the office. I’m appropriating the conference room next door for my own use. Call Maintenance, they need to decide the best place to put the door in. You’ll have to move any meetings that were supposed to take place in there to a room on another level. There are some big conferences rooms down on 58 and 59. So that shouldn’t be a problem.”_

_“Sir! That’s the boardroom. The Board of Directors meets in there!”_

_“That’s it?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“So that room is used, at most, once a month?”_

_“Well, yes sir.” Bambi’s voice was cautious._

_“Yeah, they don’t need a dedicated space for that. I’m taking the room. The board can meet in any one of the dozen conference rooms we have in this building.”_

_“The board is_ not _going to like that sir.”_

_“Eh, I’ve been thinking it’s about time for a change on the board anyway. This will just help it along.”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_Tilting back in his chair Tony took a good look at Bambi Arbogast. She had been his senior secretary for years. Pepper as his assistant followed him around and came to him, took care of everything from physically tracking him down for his signature and then flying those papers to where they needed to be hand delivered, to being his stand in in meetings and keeping up with the upkeep of his various private properties around the world and keeping his personal and private schedule from overlapping too much. Bambi, both before and after Pepper’s promotion, had stayed in the office. She was in charge of turning everything Tony dictated into written reports, keeping the office running smoothly and coordinating between Tony’s scattered work places as he transferred, sometimes daily between lab and office and across the country, and all the other vital sections of the company. Stark industries had developed over the years into a dynamic, constantly changing company as it followed in the steps of the mercurial CEO that had taken it from a profitable, but small, company that basically did business with the US government into the global financial juggernaut it is today. And in many ways Bambi Arbogast’s ability to be unflappable as she took charge of the office while Pepper and Tony moved around the world had set the company tone. Bambi had hired and trained a good portion of the backbone of the upper level of the company and they followed her lead in competent, loyal, composure. In fact, it was that backbone of secretarial and administrative assistants that, Tony suspected, did most of the work nominally in the hands of the board._

_“You don’t have any children, if I remember correctly, Mrs. Arbogast, do you?”_

_“No, sir. I never had the desire.”_

_“I can relate,” was Tony’s dry reply, “but you do have family. I remember you telling me about them.”_

_“Yes, sir. Three nieces and a nephew.”_

_“Tell me about them.”_

_Mrs. Arbogast answered immediately as if the question was not at all out of the blue. “My oldest niece, Susan, is in college. She was initially in Education as she wanted to be a teacher. However, after her first time observing a classroom, she decided she hated kids and didn’t want to have anything to do with them. She might get over that if she eventually has her own. But for now, she’s in the business track at Louisiana State. My nephew, Ryan, is studying languages at NYU, he wants to be a translator. He’s living with us right now as New York is so expensive. My other two nieces, Ellie and Ashley are still in high school and live with my sister in New Orleans.”_

_“Hmm.” Tony handed over the zippered pouch he used to hold the portable data drives exclusive to his systems. “That ‘unexpected development’ I’m dealing with is two children Mrs. Arbogast. Boys. Five and one.”_

_Bambi looked as flabbergasted as Tony had ever seen her. Over the years of working for Tony, Bambi Arbogast had dealt with well over a dozen paternity suits on behalf of her boss. No woman was ever able to prove paternity due to the availability of DNA testing which, while expensive at the beginning, Tony Stark had always been willing to pay for.”_

_“Wha…? Sir, how…? I mean, yes sir, Mr. Stark.”_

_“You’re not the only one who’s surprised, Mrs. Arbogast. Let me just say that beyond being the target, I had nothing to do with it.”_

_“Mr. Stark?”_

_“Someone did a little science, invented some new tech… you know how it is.” Tony looked over at Mrs. Arbogast, “did a little experimenting and decided to use the best they could find.”_

_“Yes, Mr. Stark. I take it these are not a failure in…” even Bambi Arbogast, the most unflappable woman Tony has ever known, and he knows_ _Pepper_ _, hesitated at talking about Tony’s sex life and use of contraceptives._

_“Oh, no. No there was no failure in that. I made sure of that, years ago. No, these two were very, very deliberate.” Tony paused, “just not on my part. But I have them now, and it is what it is.”_

_“Mr. Stark?”_

_“Don’t worry about it,” Tony waved his hand dismissively. “What I need from you, is for you to find me a short list for nannies. They need to be good with children, willing to work odd hours, at least until we get everything set up properly, and they need to be fully willing and capable of protecting my children and acting as bodyguards. Military service would be a plus, or security work here at SI.”_

_Tony and Mrs. Arbogast went on to talk about the expectations for the job. As well as bringing in the deputy head of security, while Happy was in California. Tony explained that no information concerning his children was to be exchanged in anyway, except for in person, for the foreseeable future as he knew_ someone _was after them, and had no idea of their resources._

_“You two work on that. Considering how they were dropped off with me, we have maybe a few days before I’m going to_ need _to be able to leave them with someone. If we truly can’t find anyone SI’s daycare would work for working hours, but that sounds like a very bad idea to me. Once the nanny situation is taken care of, start looking for tutors. Someone who can go all the way through high school if possible. A retired teacher would be best, maybe someone who taught several different grades, I don’t know. The nanny situation is more immediate, but I need a tutor too.”_

_“Are you not planning to have them go to school, sir?”_

_“Not just yet. First I want them to be comfortable in their new home. Then we’ll think about school and things like that. Look into it, Mrs. Arbogast.”_


	9. Helen Cho

Dr. Cho had arrived late on Sunday, but Tony let her settle in until after his meeting with Jacob Monday morning. Tony stopped by her floor to speak with her before taking her up to the lab that had been set aside for her work.

“It’s good of you to come, Helen. I appreciate it.”

“Well, when the man who, the last time he contacted you, it was about that travesty of an attempt at a Super Soldier Serum that had the side effect of spontaneously exploding, asks you to come immediately, you do. I do hope that you haven’t run across another biological weapons program. You had said that this didn’t have anything to do with Ms. Potts?” Helen’s inflection showed the last statement was more of a question.   
  


“Yeah, no. This doesn’t have anything to do with Pepper. She’ll be in Japan for the next two days before heading back to California. We might see her soon, but as far as I know the modifications we came up with have held up and she’s doing fine.

“Good. So, what’s this about?”

“Helen, on Saturday, before I called you I had two children dropped off downstairs by a very heavily armed man. Looking through the information that came with them and doing a basic DNA analysis to determine paternity I instead determined that both boys were my clones. The older of the two boys is an almost perfect match to me. As far as I can tell they tried to tinker with the younger, but he is still definitely mine. I have all the information that came with them, and it looks like whoever sent me the kids sent me everything that had anything to do with them.”

Handing Dr. Cho a tablet, “Everything I have is on here. The technology they used to create them. The incubator they used. All the DNA analysis that both came with the boys and the tests that I ran after they got here. Everything.”

Helen took the tablet and immediately started scanning through the file headings, “so what do you need from me?”

“I already know they’re mine. What I need is for you to go over everything that was done to them and find any possible problems that they might have. I don’t trust people who steel DNA to make clones to have not skimped and made a miscalculation in their tampering. These people obviously lack ethics, I don’t know if they also lack skill. I need you to look over all the changes and make sure Jonathan and Sammy will be alright.

Helen looked up at Tony, “is there anything in particular you think I should look for when I go over the data?”

“Other than it looks like they were trying for some sort of enhancement in Sammy, no. What I really want to make sure is that they didn’t give either of them a predisposition for cancer or something like that.”

“I’m probably going to need more blood samples. It’s not just cancer, there are a whole host of diseases to watch for. As well as various mental and emotional disorders.”

“I know. Just…, they were treated like experiments. I had to name them myself when I got them. I’d really like to keep the testing to a minimum. I know you’re more than just a geneticist, so everything’s on there,” Tony gestured to the tablet. “I’m trusting you with this.”

Helen nodded her head with a serious look on her face. Being trusted with someone’s children was always a great responsibility. It was very moving and said good things about Tony’s trust in her, and her abilities, that she was his first choice. She wouldn’t let either Tony or these kids down. If she found any problems she would do her very best to help.

***

The next few days were spent getting to know his children. Tony had JARVIS doing background checks on a variety of people. As well as having SI security doing those same checks. Everyone that Tony might need or want to tell about his children were having security checks done on them. No exceptions were being made, not even the people Tony had already told. Various levels of security and company administration, those who were dealing with the extra work, knew that something was going on. So far, word of Tony’s children had not spread outside of those Tony had specifically told. But he knew it would eventually, so everyone was having another, more intense, security review done. Starting from the top down and covering anyone who might in the future have even superficial access to Tony’s children, everyone was being looked at.

James Rhodes was Tony’s best friend and designated guardian of Tony’s children if anything ever happened to Tony. If Rhodey couldn’t pass a more intensive security check, then no one would, and Tony might as well just take his children out and hand them to the nearest stranger on the street. 

Jacob Marks had been Tony’s lawyer for years and Tony had to start with _someone_ to get the legal ball rolling. The Starks would just have to trust that Marks was as trustworthy as Tony had always believed him to be. It just wasn’t possible for Tony to suspect _everyone_ , he had to trust some people to get everything done. 

As for Dr. Helen Cho, while Tony did not know her as well as the other two, he had researched all the top geneticists just a year ago, and Dr. Cho had been picked to be the one to help Tony with stabilizing and eliminating as much of the Extremis Virus from Pepper as possible. Brilliant and with no known criminal or shady associates, Dr. Cho was still the top geneticist in the world and the only one Tony wanted looking at his sons’ genetic code. Add to that her extensive advocacy for scientific ethics and profound disgust of the whole idea of ‘Super Soldiers’, and she was still Tony’s first choice.

Mrs. Arbogast had worked for Tony for years, with access to some _very_ sensitive data. The only one with a closer working relationship to Tony, was Pepper. Maybe Happy; for the sheer fact that both of them had followed Tony around the world for years on business.

Of them all, it was only Evans, the deputy head of security, New York branch, that Tony had not either known for years or worked closely with. But still, to be a deputy head of security at a company like Stark Industries, everything it was possible to know about him was in his file. Besides, Happy had chosen him and Tony knew Happy was a much better judge of character than Tony would ever be.


End file.
